Vampire Academy: Damsel of Bloodlust
by C A L A M I T Y xxx
Summary: OC fanfic: Meet Natasha Alexander. A girl that was born of dhampir and moroi genes. It earns her new friends, new enemies, and new abilities. At one point, all of those will turn against her, and each horrific event that occurs predicts her fate.
1. PROLOGUE : Espionage

The office was silent as Kirova contemplated deep in thought. The event that just happened at the academy was probably no coincidence. Anyhow, the school staff would have to take extreme measures to solve the problem at hand. St. Vladimir's Academy had always had a good reputation when it came down to students, but this seemed all too wrong. Two girls have ran away from campus and have traveled to who knows where. But it was actually another week ago that one more student disappeared from the school grounds. But she was a new student, who's parents had strictly sentenced her to stay at the academy until she was able to take care of herself physically and emotionally. Luckily St. Vladimir's had excellent staff in the campus. There was the headmistress herself, Kirova, who is usually on good terms to good people, but if you're know to be a delinquent on your records, she would be onto you like a hawk. Then there was Alberta, one of Kirova's trusted friends and captain of the guardians of the school. When it came to office work, she was like a co-headmistress, but she was more busy setting duties of the guardians than able to help Kirova out. Then there was the more elite of the guardians, Dimitri Belikov. He was young compared to the other guardians at the academy, but he's well known to have trained well at the academy for so long, he's one of the elite trainers of combats to the younger guardians-in-training. There were other good members of St. Vladimir's, but the three of them would make a good trio to find a way to recover back the three students that disappeared.

"The two girls that left at the same time are most likely together. Since one is Moroi and the other is her guardian." Alberta reminded herself. Kirova had her chin against her frail hand and a pencil hung low between her pointer and middle finger.

"Yes. Vasilisa Dragomir and Rose Hathaway. Apparently, they have been scheming the escape a while back, nearly two years. Though they have moved from place to place constantly, I think they're staying at Portland for a while. It's been eight months since they arrived there and they haven't left yet. They might have let their guard down."

"So then," Dimitri started. "I can finally catch them?"

"Yes, guardian Belikov. You have my confirmation now on Visilisa and Rose."

Alberta turned her head slightly in concern. "What about the other girl?"

Dimitri blinked at Alberta's question. "What other girl."

"I didn't tell Dimitri about her yet, Alberta." Kirova cut in. They both stared at her quietly. "She just arrived at St. Vladimir's a month ago, so she's fairly new. Her name I have to look up in the system, since I only heard her name once around campus." Kirova turned her chair to face the record cabinet. She flipped each folder until she went into the new student portion of the cabinet. During that moment, Alberta turned her head to Dimitri, who met her gaze.

"You know you aren't going alone, right? Teenagers these days will do anything to get away from jeopardy."

"I knew ahead of time, Captain."

"Excellent. I'll pick out the right guardians to accompany you on the search."

Kirova had been looking at a particular folder for a small moment, but when she was about to put it back in the drawer convinced it was the wrong file, she glimpsed at something on it that her recent guests had mentioned at their conference; Something that no one has theoretically heard of.

"Born with unusual discovery of Moroi and Dhampir blood; a mix breed…" Kirova interpreted to herself. "I found the file on the other girl that has gone omitted."

The other two's attention directed back to the elderly headmistress. Dimitri had spoke first in curiosity. "And who is it?"

"Natasha Alexander. 18 years old. Born with Dhampir AND Moroi blood."

"How is that possible?" Alberta questioned.

"Whichever parent was the Moroi was probably a spirit user. They may be rare, but it is a possibility that she has some sort of mark to symbolize it. Most dhampirs and humans do." Dimitri explained. "But I'm not sure if that makes finder her any easier, unless she only stopped at one place."

"According to our tracking device, she did. Right now, she resides in Alaska. When we get more information, we'll tell you were in Alaska she directly is. Think you can do both of these tasks?" Kirova eyed Dimitri as if he was being ready to take a very hard test.

"Of course, Headmistress Kirova."

"Since Natasha is closer by, and less likely to move than the other two, you'd capture her first. We wouldn't want to go in a bad order."

"I will do my best."

"Now then," Kirova said, while turning back towards the cabinet, but opening a different case of folders. "Let's see where this girl truly is. "


	2. 1: Bloodlust

I keep having these nightmares. Nightmares that there are people out there that want to use me for their own advantage. Not that I'm too nice or anything. Some people think I'm the meanest person in the world. It depends on my mood. Right now, I'm a little laid back since three glasses of champagne with strawberries can really wear me down. I myself know that sometimes I can have temper issues, but I have my ways of calming myself down; one way is alcohol. If I drank or smoke, it would lessen my chances of getting into trouble; well, situation-like trouble, not underage illegal trouble. Another thing that helped me was a new friend I made. Her name is Gia Lynn, and I'm sitting on the bed next to her on the second floor of this house. The academy must have found out by now that I was missing, but is there really a way they could track me down? I left to have a life, not to have fantasy rubbed in my face. Sometimes I really wish I was born as a regular human, and now and then at the library, I would look up books about cures to hereditary deficiency, but there was no information left in about dhampirs and moroi or whatever. Physically, there were advantages to my unusual genes. With the combination of dhampir and moroi blood, my figure was perfect to me. I was curvy around the right areas and had a nice tan to my skin. I was born blonde, and now my hair reaches down to my mid back, while my bangs only reach slightly passed my eyebrows, since I don't want hair strands stabbing my eyes if they ever get the opportunity. I got my nose pierced not too long ago, and there's a silver gemstone in it. I got it done on my birthday, August 25th, as a high school graduation present. I also have a couple of tattoos. There's a purple lily on my foot, a boldly designed cross right below my neck (which would appear weird since I was a vampire, but I didn't care), and a more special tattoo that I'd gotten just recently here in Alaska. It was a medium sized Victorian heart with a crown on top of it on my ribs. There's was just something very different about it. While in Alaska, I found a moroi, a spirit user at that, who wanted to get together sometime. At that time, he didn't know I was one of his kind. But once he did find out, I told him about my hereditary mishap, and he suggested that I get a symbol done of it with his blood. At first, I thought he was insane, since I just met him, but having a moroi spirit user's blood in my skin may have an awesome effect. So later on, he gave me small bag of his blood, and I told my tattoo artist to mix the blood with the ink he was going to use. So yes, I have spirit in my ink, which is amazing. I haven't been able to find anything to use the spirit on anyhow. Maybe if I had stayed at St. Vladimir's longer, I would have learned more about moroi powers and dhampirs and what not, but at the same time, I couldn't stand the hell hole. I had to get out and away from everybody. The nightmares seemed to have gotten worse ever since I was enrolled there, but if I told my parents about it, they would have thought I was just nervous or making up an excuse, so I had to leave with my own permission.

We were about to get ready to head out of the house and go to a nearby amusement park. To my surprise, it wasn't so cold in Fall in Alaska, so I felt comfortable to dress however I wanted. I was told often that I dress like I'm for sale, not surprisingly often by my own family, but I was just being myself. I chose to wear a navy metallic tube dress that went no lower than six inches above the knee and seemed to cling to my body, showing off my shape. I was also wearing fishnet tights with silver high heels with studded straps that went up to the ankle. The only fancy jewelry I wore was just the charm necklace that I have gotten from my older sister when I was thirteen, before she died. No one knows how she passed away or where her body was for the matter. Someone just came to us and gave us the grave news: Janice was nowhere to be found. So we just figured she was dead. But I never taken off the charm she gave me. Not for anyone or anything. It was a crescent moon with diamonds in it, so it was more expensive than it looked. But money wasn't the concern for this charm; it was the thought that counts. Gia was equally as attractive as I was, and we nearly had the same taste in fashion. You could say that she had an average weight, but she was curvier than I was. Lighter than I was, but definitely not pale. Her hair was wavy and reached down to her cleavage. It was blonde around the top layer and the bottom/under layer was brown. She had two lip piercings, a ball under each side of her lips, and her ears were gauged to double zeros (which was the size of a quarter). As for inkage, this girl had a whole sleeve inked onto her and a couple of back tattoos as well. She was human, but was very well aware of the whole moroi and dhampir deal. She said that there was another species of vampires that she heard of as well, but forgot the name of them. I figured if they were easy to forget like that, they weren't such a big deal.

"Do your parents mind that we're walking to an amusement park at midnight?" I asked Gia questionably. She narrowed her eyes another direction then chuckled.

"Do I care?" She replied. We both laughed as our heels clacked against the concrete. I have to admit, we look more like we're heading towards the nearest bar rather than the amusement park, but we both feel that we had to look our best no matter where we went; even to the dumpster to put trash in. Well, okay, we wouldn't go that far, but we did keep our features in touch. From the neighborhood that Gia lived in, the park was only 2 miles away. Since I had a big stamina, it would be no problem for me, but it made me wonder if Gia's ever walked there before; in heels. But if she wanted a break, I'd be nice enough to give her one. A stray cat stared at us as we walked past it and a neighbor's yard. It meowed normally as we kept walking on, but then it meowed as if it desperately needed something. Turning around, we saw that the cat was following us as if we owed it something.

"That cat is strange." Gia stated, staring at it.

"Does it want anything from you or just attention?" Natasha asked. Right after, the cat glanced at something else, then shrunk back as if it saw something frightening, then ran back to its own property. "What was that about?"

"Who knows? Let's keep walking."

It was a full moon tonight, so even without the lamp posts out in the streets, it was easy to perceive where we were going. From where Gia lived, the moon looked a lot closer than where it was, and there were no clouds or fog to block its light shine. I didn't even realize I stopped walking, and Gia had too, but we were both staring at it in curiosity.

"I wish I could take a picture, but I don't have my camera with me." Gia groaned. She was lucky she had me, so she wasn't at a total loss, so I reached and grappled in my bag looking for my easy-to-lose Blackberry Storm. Anything was easy to lose in my bag; you could lose your pet dog in here if possible. Feeling something hard and cold against my fingers, I grabbed around my little talking device.

"You can use my phone. It has a camera on it."

"Well I'm certainly glad you're here to help." Gia teased. I handed over my Blackberry to her before she switched it to camera mode and aimed it where the moon sat. "Cue me, Natasha?"

"Soy cheese!" I shouted at her, laughing. It was my other way of saying cheese on the camera, whether I was in the picture or not. I've said that since I was little. I heard the little snap imitation on my phone go off and I walked over to take a look. Just how it looked outside; perfect.

"Nice shot, Gia. You take photography?" I asked her, and while I did I could have sworn I heard something quickly pass by us.

"I took the class once in my freshman year of high school, but I learned more about it on the internet."

"Like everyone else." We chuckled once more at our statements, but a bush had rustled behind us, somehow stopping our laughter. We glanced at it and it seemed to have stayed still, but I knew that something weird was going on. "I think we should keep walking…"

"Yeah, the park doesn't stay open long. Even if it didn't, we could still walk around and look at the rides ourselves." It seemed like we had a solution for every problem we faced, but the moment we began walking, a bigger problem had jumped out of nowhere right in front of us. Gia yelped out and grabbed hold of me while I just got startled and jumped back in alarm at the sudden figure in front of us.

"What the hell!?" Gia shouted. Her grasp was still around my waist as we examined the stranger that appeared out of nowhere. In fact, his features looked totally out of the ordinary compared to a regular human being's. He was blonde like me, and his hair was down to his chin. He was taller than both of us and I sized him up to at least six foot tall. Now, here were the strangest features: He was pale, like, white as a sheet, and I didn't even think someone could be out of the sun for so long. And either he was wearing fancy contacts, or his eye's pupils were really ringed with red. Nowadays, things would turn out awkward, especially while I was around, but I didn't expect this to happen.

"What are you ladies doing out in the middle of the night by yourselves?" The man asked. His voice sounded cold, but his smile was grim. "You should know better than to do that; especially _you_." His dark, red ringed eyes glanced over towards me. "No guardians, no weapons, no protection, and no brains for that matter. It's like both of you are just crying out for me to come and kill you."

Gia's eyes widened and her hand reached inside of her purse, in search for something while she kept her eyes on the man. "Who're you supposed to be, threatening us like we're your enemies?!"

The blonde stranger chuckled at the question as if the answer was obvious. "If you must know, my name is Nathan." His eyes slowly turned towards me once more. "I'll start with you."

And just like that, _just like that_, he was in front of me; and while Gia cried out and tried to shove him away, he grabbed her neck and shoved back, only with probably five times more force. It was unbelievable to see Gia shoved so hard by the neck, she hit the metal fence behind us and grunted in pain. It must have hurt, since she suddenly sunk down on the grass, her purse and belongings seemed to have gotten loose and were scattered all around her, but she seemed too stunned to reach out towards something and grab it.

"Gia! Are you okay?!" I shouted towards her, but another problem was that Nathan had one hand holding the back of my neck, the other snaked tightly around my waist. The first reflex I had when a guy grabbed me against my will was to punch him as hard as I could, and that was exactly what I did, but it didn't faze him. Not even a little. I still tried to push him away, but his strength was phenomenal, like I was trying to push off a brick wall.

"Hold still and be quiet," Threatened Nathan. "Your death will be filled with ecstasy." His eyes widened and looked down to my neck. Now technically, I knew what he was. He was a vampire, but not a dhampir, and defiantly not a moroi, but what was he?! Before I realized it, he was bringing my head up and his mouth opened, exposing sharp fangs. I screamed the moment I felt the tip of his fangs touch the flesh of my neck, but something immediately stopped him, and I opened my eyes (not realizing they were shut) to see what was happening.

Gia was finally on her feet, standing behind Nathan, and in her hands right on top of his neck was a lit lighter. Even being a smoker had its crazy advantages. She had burned Nathan on the back of his neck, and he cried out and let go of his grasp on me, making me fall on the street on my side, which did hurt a little bit, but we had bigger concerns.

"You bitch!!" Nathan shouted, and at the same time, in unbelievable speed, he turned around and swung his hand towards the side of Gia's cheek. She didn't see it coming, and ended up getting scratched by his not-too-sharp-but-not-too-dull nails. She screamed as she grabbed her cheek, which had four large scratch marks on it. At least she was able to see that Nathan was onto her now, and she had the cigarette lighter in her hands right in his face threatening to burn him. But I couldn't just lay there and watch. Feeling like there was damage done when he dropped me, I struggled to get up at least on my butt to turn and face him.

"Leave us alone. Now," I said to his back. "Or she'll burn you to death."

Nathan turned from me to Gia a couple of times, and then he groaned angrily. "I've swallowed things more frightening than you two." He backed up away from us as if he was calling quits. "I'll be back for you before you know it." His eyes darted at me again, being set to a glare. As much as I hated getting dirty looks, I had a feeling I had to keep my mouth shut at the moment. Then he jumped high, high into one of the trees and then elsewhere. I stared at his path for a moment, making sure that he wasn't coming back this instant, and then sighed in relief that he was gone. Gia ran over to me and offered her hand, and I grabbed it as she helped me get on my feet again, though it was a little hard with heels on.

"Are you okay?" Gia asked me with a concerned look.

"I should be asking you that," I replied, brushing some dirt off my shoulder. "You took the most damage."

"I know. It was nothing. Not that I've gone through worse, but you know what I mean. What did he want from you anyway?"

"I'm not sure." I replied. Nathan's attention was directed at me mostly when he attacked us. It was as if he knew about me being moroi and dhampir, and it was sort of a big deal. "You still want to go to the theme park?"

Gia cackled. "Of course! No way is some dude going to ruin our night."

"Then let's go now. No more interruptions for the night."

At least I hoped.

To our surprise, the amusement park was still open. However, we were a little late, since the park would close in half an hour. As we walked through the entrance, I did catch a couple of people double-taking in our direction, not that we cared. Neon and blinking lights appeared everywhere as we walked along with the crowd towards the first ride we wanted to go on.

"You know," Gia said. "You told me you've never been on a ferris wheel before."

"Yeah. And?" I questioned. I remember when I was little, I was a little bit terrified of giant wheels, but as I got older, I just didn't care to ride them. I guess now would be a good opportunity. "…You want me to go on with you, don't you?"

"Hell yeah I do! It's amazing, we've got to try it now before we leave."

"Come on now, it'll still be there tomorrow and the next day and the next."

"No, I mean when we leave Alaska. We're going around other parts of America!"

I almost thought that she was joking. "Wait, why are we leaving anyway? It seems nice. I don't see any reason to."

"Because I'm worried about you. You said that you left St. Vladimir's without warning, and they could be trying to track you down. We can't stay in one place forever."

"As complicated as that school is, I never heard of a school with some kind of tracking device to find lost students."

"Well they must have had to something to start looking for you…I don't want you to go back yet."

"Neither do I." I replied. Even though I've only been in Alaska for a month now, it was almost like home. But if she had to move to a different spot in the country just to make Gia feel more comfortable, she would do it. "Okay, Gia. We think of someplace else to go. But we have to make this night last as long as possible."

"Good." Gia replied, grinning. We both got in line to the ferris wheel, which was fairly short because people were just leaving the park due to the close closing time, so it was a high chance that we were to get on board next. As the wheel slowly made its rotations while we waited patiently, I looked around to see that the amusement park did seem slightly empty. Everyone was about to leave and go home, while we were going to stay and enjoy the view, and possibly hang around anyway after the park closed. Apparently Gia did it before, so I doubt that she would get me in any trouble intentionally. As my head would turn to look around, my vision would pass a hooded man that was looking in my direction, but I thought it was just a random person glance like most people would do. But as I began to turn around the opposite way to glance at the line, my eyes drew past him again, and apparently he was still looking this way. He wasn't just glancing at me for a second, he was staring at me, and it sort of creeped me out. I tried to ignore him, but even looking another direction, I felt his gaze sitting on me. I realized that the ferris wheel was slowing down, and eventually came to a halt. By the time the whole round of people got off, Gia grabbed me by the wrist to follow the line, which was finally moving forward. Predictable for us, we got the last seat before there weren't any more left. Wherever there was a line nowadays we were always the last ones. As soon as we were strapped in, we felt the hum of the cranks moving the wheel, and it slowly began to move in a giant circle.

I had to say, for the first time on the ferris wheel, it seemed pretty relaxing. I instantly had sunk into a comfortable position in my seat and stared through the side window to enjoy the scenery. I've heard of way bigger wheels, like the London Eye, but I really didn't care how big or quickly it went. It was going just right.

"So how is it so far?" Gia asked me, grinning as if she had a little secret to share with me.

"I think it's very wonderful, thank you for asking." I replied back laughing. Due to my instincts, I'm naturally more awake at night than I am at daytime, and Gia just dealt with my nocturnal side and slept during the day so that we could hang out at night, but it was possible that I could sleep here this very moment. The wheel was more peaceful that I had imagined it would be. While we were almost at the very top, I glanced down at the ground beneath us; and to my dismay, that man was still there. Now he was talking to someone else with his back turned towards me (since he was in front of the ride itself), but I noticed that now and then, he actually pointed at the seat that me and Gia were sitting at. He was definitely onto us about something.

"Gia, I'm not so sure if I'm comfortable here anymore." I said with an even tone, keeping my eye on the mystery man. At least it wasn't Nathan; otherwise we would have made a scene, even if nobody was around.

"Why? Are you airsick?" She replied. Of course I would be the only one to notice the guy staring at us continually. I pointed down at his direction and spoke once more.

"No. I got over that a long time ago. Look down at where I'm pointing."

And she did. At first, she looked like she was still looking for something as if the guy I was talking about wasn't important, but while she was still looking around him, she did catch him glancing up at us a couple of times.

"You mean that guy?"

"Mhmm. He's been looking at us ever since we got in line."

"Maybe he finds us attractive." Gia laughed. But I didn't find it a laughing matter. A guy that found us pretty wouldn't have the nerve to stare at us that long without saying anything.

"I'm not joking around, Gia. I don't like the way he's looking at us."

"Then we'll just ask him what's up and why he's bothering you."

"No…I think when we get off when just head back home. He hasn't moved at all since he saw us."

Gia glanced down at the man once more, probably thinking of other reasons why he was onto us or if he wanted something.

"Okay, we can leave then." She concluded. It only gave me a small amount of relief, but it was better than confronting him. The ferris wheel was on its last axis and began to slow down to a halt to let people off. The moment the wheel stopped was the moment the amusement park was officially closed. The moment we got off the seat and onto bare ground once more we began walking away. The host of the ferris wheel gave us a goodbye and hoped he had a nice ride. Physically, I did; mentally, well for one I don't like it when people stare at me for a long while. I seemed to have developed the guts to turn around and see if the guy was still there. To my surprise, he was gone. Nobody but us seemed to be around the park but us.

"Gia, wait." I said, holding Gia's hand to stop her from walking further.

"What is it?"

"He's gone. That one guy that was looking at us is gone."

"So…is that good or bad?"

"I'm not sure," I replied, feeling bemused. I gave a heavy sigh and stared at his past spot for a long moment. "I don't know. Let's go home."

Gia nodded and be begun to turn around back to the way we were headed, but it was like a déjà vu moment; the guy that was looking at us from afar was now right in front of us, blocking our path. My instincts automatically told me to quickly head another direction. Keeping Gia's hand in my grasp, I turned back around, but there was another problem; the guy that this man was talking to earlier was in my way. And it seemed like out of nowhere that two other men blocked our left and right path, so Gia and I were trapped with no easy way of escaping. We stayed close, but then I glanced at the first man we ran into. He was tall; Very tall. I'd say about six foot seven or six foot six. He was obviously older than us, mid-twenties or so, and I would find him quite attractive if he wasn't holding us in a hostage situation. His hair was brown and shoulder length and let loose, but he could tie it in a ponytail if he wanted to. His eyes were a dark brown color you could even see in the dark. The other three men that surrounded us weren't worth examining. What I also noticed was that they weren't the only ones around. I looked more closely at the entrance and the exit, and even some random parts of the park. There were mysterious men and women at every corner, making escape possible. It was this guy that brought them all to trap us here at this spot that we had to question.

"Are they with Nathan…?" Gia whispered to me while we were back to back.

"I hope not." I replied. As much as they looked nothing like Nathan, they were certainly just as threatening.

Before the silence got any more aggravating, the tall man spoke. "It didn't take much effort to find you here."

_What!?_

"St. Vladimir's is expecting your return."

"No way." I replied boldly. I couldn't believe this at all. They really did track me down here. But how?!

"You're going have to get past me before taking her away!" Gia shouted suddenly stepping in front of me in her assertive form. I could have sworn I heard one of the other men chuckle.

"You're not of our concern, little girl." One of the other men cut in. "It's this mixed breed that we want." They were talking about me. My parents talk about my most personal information to the headmistress and then suddenly everyone knows about it. You couldn't trust anyone these days. I rested my case when I felt a rough hand grab my shoulders from behind. It was the other man that blocked my southern escape route, and he was trying to keep me from running away. Gia heard me suddenly cry out, and just as I predicted, she lashed out towards the man that had the hold on me. Her fist flew right across his face and he only grunted in slight pain. So it didn't do much, but it did something to help me out. I realize that his grip on me had gotten loose and I tore out of his grasp just to accidentally run into the main guy's. From the force he used to hold me back with his arms wrapped around me tightly, I had a feeling it would take more than a punch to make this guy let go. The moment Gia had her target caught off guard while still attacking the other man was the moment that she got trapped in his clutches too, and we were both done for. I did find it funny, however, that the academy would send this many people to try and catch me and me alone, so they must have thought ahead and figured the possibility that I would be with someone else that would try to protect me and keep me here –Gia in particular- and decided to bring a whole faction of people to lower the chance of getaway.

"You're just a human." The guy holding onto Gia said. "You've no chance of winning."

"You let go of me and I'll take you all on!" Gia snarled back. Funny how she wasn't this aggressive when we got attacked by Nathan.

"You don't have to." The man that got a hold of me said. "We're not trying to harm either of you. We just need you to return to the academy, Natasha."

That made more questions pop in my head, and I manage to wrestle out of his grip without hurting myself. "Who are you, and how do you know my name?"

"I am a guardian at St. Vladimir's as well as the other people around here keeping you from escape." He pointed out his supporters that helped corner us. "My name is Dimitri Belikov. I was officially sent here to bring you back."

"She doesn't want to!" Gia cut in. "She can stay here if she wants. She has legal rights!"

"Yes," Dimitri answered. "But it was her parents' legal decision to keep her in the academy until further notice. So of right age or not, she has to stay until told."

"That's not fair at all!" I replied.

"Guardian Belikov," One of the other men started. "What should we do with her?"

They were talking about Gia, who looked like she was going to pounce on Dimitri if she was let loose. She stared right at him the moment the question was asked, not looking forward to the answer.

"Don't hurt her." I said out loud. As much as I was in clutches before, I knew how to deliver a straight message. Since the Belikov guy said that he 'meant no harm', I said the demand mainly to the other three men that were closest to us. Then I made my voice louder to make it clear to the farther away guardians. "You hear me?! You'll be sorry even if you cut off a single strand of her hair!"

"Natasha, we must go now. We can't take your friend along with us. You know the rules." Dimitri said in a low voice, probably trying to calm both of us down. I glanced back at Gia, who was staring daggers at me. I had realized that if I refused to head back to St. Vladimir's, then we'd both be stuck here as hostages or whatever. They had to make some sort of acceptation.

"Can she at least come as a guest and then go after looking around? I can't just leave her here."

There was a long pause. At least these guardians were nice enough to listen to what we had to say, but they still seemed rough around the edges. After a few more seconds, Dimitri had nodded his head towards the man that held Gia still. At first it looked like he hesitated, but then he slowly undid his grasp, freeing Gia out of his clutches. She rubbed her arms as if he squeezed them enough to cut off their circulation. After Gia was let loose, Dimitri had let go of me as well. I suddenly knew what Gia was doing the moment the guy let go of her. My arms felt like they got the air squeezed out of them, and I rubbed them gently to try and get the circulation back going again. After I finished up with that, I backed up a little bit, still watching the guardians' movements.

"She can come along. But only for a short while." One of the other men said. I heard Gia's sigh of relief as she stood next to me, expecting a different answer. Dimitri had closed his eyes and then opened them to look another direction.

"The cars are parked over there." He pointed towards the exit. "It's about time you went back to where you came."


	3. 2: Oblivion

We soon learned that this car would take us to a plane that would drop us off on the academy's private jet which would then drop us off at the state where St. Vladimir's was located. Due to suspicion of plotting to escape, Dimitri made sure that Gia and I sat in different seat rows. I still couldn't believe my parents forced me to get into this stupid academy just because I didn't know enough about my genealogy and heredities. I intended to wait one year before going to any school so that I could catch up with the online courses and get a job first and what not, but apparently they were too concerned about who I was on the inside; not that I could complain about it to any of these guys. To our dismay, Gia sat in between two of mystery guardians in the seat row behind me while I sat between one and Dimitri. While I had my arms folded across each other and one leg over the other, I looked uncomfortably out the window. It was completely black outside, but I could still see the passing shadow figures of the trees we drove by. I really wonder how long it took for these guys to find us. Then again, this is Alaska, and we're headed for Montana; who knows how many hours it could take to get there; by car or jet.

I glanced towards the other window and caught Dimitri looking down at some part of me. I followed his gaze and noticed a long cut on my forearm.

"You got hurt?" He asked. I wondered if it was alright to tell them about the guy that attacked us earlier; Nathan.

"Tell them, Natasha." I heard Gia say. I turned around to meet her strong gaze. She nodded yes, and figured it would be a good idea to tell them.

"Earlier tonight, before we reached the theme park, we were attacked by this guy…" I paused for a moment, and Dimitri's eyes went from the cut to me. He did look a little concerned, so I decided to finish off. "It was a guy named Nathan, though he wasn't like any other person I've ever heard of."

"And why is that?" I heard one of the guardians behind me ask. I think I heard Gia sigh a little too.

"He didn't look, or act like any regular person. He was pale as hell and there was an odd red tint in his eyes. And he seemed to outmatch both of us until I burnt him with my cigarette lighter.

I soon realized that these people were more interested in that situation than I thought they would be. There was silence, but ALL of the guardians' eyes were staring wide and shocked at either Gia or me. I glanced back and forth at the guardian next to me and Dimitri, who both looked like I just grabbed their crotches without asking.

"You got attacked…by a _strigoi_…!?" Dimitri sharply asked me. I blinked in confusion, and I turned around to look at Gia again. She looked just as confused as I was and she shrugged. Then I turned back around and looked at the two men by my sides.

"Um…a strigoi?"

"What is that?" Gia followed. Their gazes on us were like daggers now, like everyone knew what 'strigoi' were except for us.

"They're a more deadly and malicious kind of vampire. If you didn't have that cigarette lighter, or if you two did absolutely nothing to protect yourself –not even running- you'd both be dead by now!" The guardian next to me explained.

"You were in the academy for a month before you ran away. You should have at LEAST learned about them for that time being." Dimitri scolded. So apparently, I left school a little early. I thought that there would only be weird things to learn there, but apparently there were things I had to learn about the outside world too; like these strigoi. Next time I see a pale person with red ringed eyes I'll know what to do; well sort of. So far, all I know is that we can burn them, or we can run away from them, which isn't exactly a lot of solutions, so there had to be more for me to know about them, as well as dhampirs and moroi.

"I didn't know that there were people like us in Alaska." I said afterwards.

"There are dhampirs, moroi, and strigoi all over the world. They're as common as everything else is. Nobody knows that is all."

"Is there a way that humans could become dhamirs, moroi or strigoi?" Gia asked suddenly.

"Gia!" I said, surprised.

"No, I'm not seriously considering becoming one of you all, but I'm just wondering."

"You usually have to be born a dhampir or a moroi to have their abilities. However, there is the choice of becoming a strigoi or not, but that would be the worst decision on your life. You either have your blood drained by a strigoi and get their blood in return, or you kill someone in command of the strigoi. One or the other, you'll become one of them."

"I'd rather not be a strigoi anyway." Gia replied, looking out the window. Hopefully Gia was asking out of curiosity instead of considering being something she's not.

"I think you're perfectly fine as a human being anyway, Gia Lynn." I said to her, and we both laughed. At least we could bring some joy to this ride back to the academy. I tried to remember some things from when I first started to go to St. Vladimir's. I do remember that there was a lower and upper school, there were feeders, personal trainers, and well…lunch. I also remember having this very strict teacher, though I couldn't recall what his name was, not that it was important at the moment. Sooner or later I would be able to recall everything I saw. I think I made some friends there, but I never took the time to learn their names, as well as the students that really weren't fond of me. My mind just had to take its time to search through lost memories I had at the school.

"I think your friend, Gia, may be able to do something there –even though she's just a human-, but we'll have to talk about it to Headmistress Kirova first."

That was another thing I suddenly remembered. The headmistress's name was Kirova. Depending on who you are, she could treat you differently. Since I was new, I figured that she was nice to me so far, but I wondered what she would think of me now that I ditched the academy for a month now- let alone everyone else, but I was going to have to find out soon, whether I liked the result or not.

* * *

It took us about 3 hours to get to Montana from plane and private jet together. I think me and Gia had fallen asleep on the way there and a sudden jump on the landings made us wide awake. At the moment, it was four in the morning, nowhere close to curfew for the students, so everyone would see us walking by. The cab parked in the front gate, so me, Gia, and the guardians would be dropped off here. There were other cars stopping around the lot as well the drop off the other montage of guardians that were with us. We all stepped out of the car and I have a good long look at the front of the academy, realizing that I couldn't get out very easily. The fact that it was night time and that the moon shined bright made St. Vladimir's seem more dark and mysterious. I felt something wrap around my hand and it was Gia, who was about an inch behind me holding my hand as if she was a little nervous. I remember the first time I came here, I was a little scared too; mainly because of how the academy looked and the kinds of people that were there, but once I learned that I was one of them, I got more comfortable. But I didn't feel like I was learning anything special, just a bunch of superstition and fantasy, but I had to look at the facts soon and that's when the nightmares reappeared and were worse than usual. I'd be in a pitch black room with nothing but a life sized mirror in it, and standing in front of it was me. I looked the same as usual standing in my spot, but the reflection read me as a totally different person. In the reflection, my skin was super pale, and there was a red ring surrounding both of my pupils, and it frightened me. Before I knew it, the reflection jumped out of the mirror and attacked me, as if it had a life of its own, and in the end its fangs would sink into my neck, and I'd scream in pain and helplessness. When I wake up, I would be considered dead in that dream, and I'd be covered in sweat and dry tears. I had no idea what it meant before, but I understood some of it now. The dream showed the reflection of me as a strigoi, and how it mercilessly attacked me; it was a lot like our encounter with Nathan. I was hoping it wasn't a foretelling dream. The moment the cabs drove off, I had a feeling that we couldn't just stand here for too long.

"Let's go, ladies." One of the guardians beside us commanded. When the guardians started walking forward, so did we. At some point of walking through the gate, it felt like something was trying to push us back, yet the feeling went away soon. I glanced over at Gia.

"Did you feel that too?" I whispered to her. She nodded uneasily in reply. Dimitri glanced over at our direction.

"It was the academy's barrier. We use it to keep strigoi off the campus."

"Oh, okay then." Gia replied. We still walked close as our heels and boots clapped against the concrete pathways. I noticed that we were heading towards one of the hallways where most of the first floor dorms and classes were, and then I realized the time; it was around dinner time. There'd be a cluster of kids in the halls and in the cafeteria right now. Though, I wasn't sure if any of them would recognize me since I was only here for a month and stayed in Alaska for a month. But I had forgotten that you had to go through these halls to get to the main offices, and once one of the guardians pulled the double doors open, I inhaled deeply. I wasn't sure how Gia was feeling at this point, but she had to be nervous in some kind of way. The inside of the hallway was visible now, and we walked casually through it. There weren't a lot of people in here, but there was enough to feel like you were being watched. And we were; some boys and girls would glance at our direction and look back to whatever they were doing, and some gave us long stares. This was partly the lower school, so some of the students could have thought we were all guardians from how old we looked, but they might have reconsidered knowing that female guardians wouldn't walk around like this; even if they wanted to. Some noise in the hall dimmed down as we walked through, as if people were expecting something big to come up just by looking at us walking by.

I decided to glance around the area while I was walking. Nobody I recognized was standing around here, but I think I've seen the inside the classrooms before. The majority of the classes along this hallway were mainly on moroi culture; and that's actually a class. It seemed a long way before we reached another set of double doors, leading to another pair in front of us, but I had a feeling these doors lead to the offices; at least the hallways to them. When we walked through those, I had realized that the headmistress's office wasn't too far off from where we were standing; and as we got closer, I had gotten a little nervous.

"Kirova isn't mad at me, is she?" I asked everyone except Gia. She's never been here, so she had nothing to worry about except for if she could stay or not.

"_Headmistress_ Kirova." Dimitri bluntly corrected. "She's not angry at you, but she does have a particular choice of words to use when she talks to you."

_Oh great._ "How can you be so sure? I mean, I'm new, so she has to go easy on me. But what if-"

I was suddenly cut off from talking when another pair of doors opened from the inside. Standing in the door way was a rough looking man who looked like he could possibly be one of the guardians of the upper school; elite or not, I couldn't tell, but he definitely looked like someone you wouldn't want to mess with. But then, I suddenly recognized him from earlier in my first month of the academy, but I couldn't recall his name. His eyes averted from me to Gia and then to Dimitri.

"Guardian Belikov."

"Guardian Alto."

"These are two of the three girls that ran away?"

"No. Just this one." Dimitri nodded his head towards me. "The other girl is her friend that would refuse to let her be brought here. For now, she's here as a guest."

That's what his last name was: Alto. Until I remembered his first name, I'd call him that from now on, but he gave Gia a long hard stare before turning the gaze to me. I knew I was a statue the moment he looked at me again; I didn't even think I breathed. He just seemed frightening when he was staring daggers at you. I'm pretty sure Gia would agree with me.

"Headmistress Kirova's been expecting you." He let the door knob go and nodded his head behind him to direct us where to go. Some of the guardians walked ahead of us, Dimitri included, and we followed behind them as the other guardians followed from behind us. Suddenly, the walking had stopped, and I knew we were at our destination. I heard Dimitri's voice upfront.

"Headmistress Kirova." He said from afar. There was a small pause, but then a voice I recognized answered.

"You found her?"

Without warning, the guardians that were in front of us split up to either the left or right side of the room, completely exposing Gia and I. I didn't mean to look surprised, but I was very nervous about what would happen next, and apparently Gia detected it.

"Just keep breathing." She whispered over to me. I just nodded my head, keeping my eyes on Kirova, whom I had forgotten was very elderly. Her nose was pointed and her hair was fairly grey and clear. Even when sitting in her chair, I could tell that she was slim and tall, like most Moroi were. I noticed that there was another woman standing with her. I've seen her before, but never got her name. But staring at her longer, I remember talking to her while my parents had a meeting with the headmistress; I recalled her name being Alberta. I noticed that Kirova was glancing around the other guardians, eventually nodding her head.

"You all are dismissed." At that, most of the guardians left the office; so then it was just me, Gia, Dimitri, Alberta, and Kirova. Kirova had then averted her eyes to us. "Take a seat." Gia and I glanced at each other before we walked forward and sat down in the red chairs. Alberta and Dimitri moved so that they were right behind our chairs, Dimitri behind mine and Alberta behind Gia's. Kirova glance over at Gia, an eyebrow risen slightly, and then towards Dimitri. "We have an extra?" Gia managed to fake a smile when she was mentioned first of all. Dimitri had no trouble explaining her again.

"Natasha has made a friend in Alaska who was willing to start a fight with us to keep her away from here. The only way to bring Natasha here without any trouble was to bring her friend along with us."

Gia looked like she desperately wanted to talk, but I knew that she didn't want to risk having to leave earlier than planned. Kirova wrapped her fingers around each other and rested her head on her hands. "I see. I guess you used whatever means necessary to bring her back." Then her eyes glanced over at me, and they looked serious and concerned at the same time. "Natasha, you've only been in here for a month and then you skip out for a month? There is so much that you can miss in that amount of time." I glanced downward, not bothering to tell her that I knew that already. But so many things can change when you're a dhamir, a moroi, or to my dismay: both. My nightmares haven't started until I realized that I wasn't completely human, and the sudden changes were the reasons why I wanted to be human sometimes. Kirova continued to ramble. "A lot of the things you can miss consist on how to live once you leave the academy and how to make it more safe to be in the outside world. Anything could happen that you wouldn't expect just because you weren't here to learn about it."

"Something did happen." Dimitri then said. I knew what he was going to say. "Earlier tonight, Natasha and her friend were attacked by a strigoi."

Kirova put one of her hands against her face, as if we did something terribly stupid. "My heavens…do you have any idea what danger you were in?"

I figured that I finally had the right to talk. "Well…we realized that we were in danger when he attacked us, but no, I didn't know that he was a strigoi."

"This proves that you're missing out on a lot. You know that we contacted your parents about this, right?"

"No…" I replied, wondering how my mom would react if she ever saw me in person this very moment.

"They can't come down here at the moment because they have to make a pay cut." I sighed in relief. "But don't think that we're not taking this seriously. Why did you leave so early without warning, Natasha?"

"You wouldn't understand." I moaned while looking down at my lap. I really did wonder if they were going to believe me if I told them about the increasingly occurring nightmares I've been having. Being a dhampir and a moroi together seemed to have grabbed me more attention than I wanted nowadays. Luckily for me, only the people at the academy knew, but I'd be terrified if any strigoi knew about me; if Nathan knew.

"And what wouldn't we understand?" Alberta asked suddenly. I had forgotten that she was with us, but she didn't seem mean in any way that I knew of.

" I don't know."

Kirova then had glanced at Gia as if she knew the answer. Gia's eyes widened in surprise that they'd turn to her, but she gave only part of her honest answer. The other part was the one Natasha didn't want to give out easily. "…I really wouldn't know anything about this school or dhampirs, moroi, and strigoi for the matter. I really don't know." She glanced over at me to see if I was at ease yet. Obviously not, since Kirova's head turned back to me. But when she opened her mouth, another voice sounded.

"The fact that she's dhampir and moroi could have some malevolent side effects…" Dimitri said suddenly. I glanced up from my lap to Kirova's desk, probably giving away part of the reason why I left. "Does anything atypical occur due to the fact that you have two different types of vampire genes in you?"

I sighed, knowing that Dimitri had figured me out. I'd be guessing that even with the smallest amount of information he had, he could break it down and turn it all into millions of details. If I said no, he probably would have thought I was lying, and so would Kirova since she heard his question. I had no choice but to tell them, whether I liked their reaction or not.

"I get insanely thirsty; not for blood, but for anything. I can hear things over large distances, sometimes things I really don't need to hear. A lot of supernatural abilities I have…" Those were actually the least of my concerns. I wasn't finished talking yet. "And…the moment I found out I was a mixed breed, I've been having nightmares." The room was horrifically quiet for letting me speak, and even Gia stared at me still with curiosity, despite that she partly knew of my problems already. "The bad dreams always frightened me, and ever since my parents enrolled me to this academy, they've actually gotten worse; and sometimes I get the feeling that they're predicting the future. I left because I didn't want to deal with them anymore; not the dreams, not the pain, nothing."

Everyone was then exchanging glances at each other except for me, and I just closed my eyes and rested my head against the wooden chair back, anxious to hear their reply.

"This isn't like anything I've _ever _heard of." Alberta said. There was a lump in my throat, and I didn't feel like talking anymore.

"It is extraordinary." Kirova replied. "We have to keep her here until further notice, but I don't think we have anything that can cure those problems of yours, Natasha."

"I know." I replied, opening my eyes to stare at the wall behind her. I wondered then how they'd react if I told them that now and then I wanted to be a regular human, but not wanting any more anxiety, I stayed silent of that.

"We can try and look for something that can create a cure for you though. Hopefully it won't erase your dhampir and moroi genes, but it may be able to get rid of the effects that are occurring because of them; if there is a cure like that."

"Let's hope so." Gia said quietly. She looked at me briefly and I met her gaze, feeling her sympathy. Then we glanced over at Kirova again.

"Am I in trouble?" I finally asked. As much as the headmistress had trimmed around the bush when it came to what I had missed in my absence, she never really said the main point yet. She crossed laced her fingers once more and closed her eyes in deep thought.

"You may have abandoned St. Vladimir's boundaries without further notice or permission, you still have reasons that I have never heard of; no one else for that matter." She glanced up at Dimitri and Alberta, who were at the moment wearing poker faces. "Unfortunately, we will have to sign you up to a class where you can make up for all the work you've missed in your month's absence."

"I knew it would come to this." I had replied, sighing heavily.

"Maybe, but do know that I have paid close attention to the words that you have spoke earlier. They are quite astounding, and we will work as well to find a remedy for the troubles that you're having."

"What about-" Gia started. At first, it was as if no one heard her, then all gazes went on her. She glanced over at me, looking anxious. "What about…"

"You?" Kirova said, finishing the question for her. Gia only nodded slightly in reply to her question. Now that she had went to Montana just to listen in to this conversation, we had no idea if she was going to stay or not, and even if she did, what would she do? She was a regular human, not a dhampir, moroi, or a strigoi. Most of the stuff that they taught here she would most likely not understand completely. "…What's your name?"

"Gia. Gia Lynn, ma'am."

"Are your parents aware of the fact that you're here in Montana?"

Yikes. Actually, her parents were the last thing we were thinking about until now. Gia was one of the types of people that didn't care about what her parents had to say about what, but if it required their permission to stay here, there'd be a problem. But there'd probably be more questions if she lied, which to my dismay, she did. "Yes they do, Ms. Kirova."

I caught Dimitri giving Gia a questioning glance. He was probably wondering how her parents already knew that she got taken away to Montana, or maybe he already knew that she was lying. The headmistress was looking through some drawers once more and Dimitri stared off at the wall again as if he was on guard duty. When he did, Gia glanced over at me with a peculiar face. Figuring that Dimitri and Alberta were right behind us, they'd probably hear us whispering, so I had to mouth out the words to Gia, hoping that she'd understand them.

_Why did you lie about your parents!?_

In reply, she actually placed her hand in front of me as if to silence me, then she gave me a thumbs up and a grin as if to say that she could handle it, but for the sake of staying here, I hope she could handle it. Eventually, Kirova sat back up and placed her magnifying glasses down on the desk.

"Ms. Lynn, I do not see any application here sent in by your parents or a legal guardian."

"That's because all of this happened before I could fully mention this academy to them. When Natasha came to Alaska and told me about it, I wanted to enroll and was planning on talking to them about it, but apparently I waited too late and got brought here. I just then sent them a text message saying that I was being brought to Montana and that I needed an application for this school." Gia had said all of that with a straight face. Remarkable.

"And what was there reply?" Dimitri suddenly asked, his undivided attention on Gia once more.

"By the time we got on the private jet, I got their reply and they said that they didn't have any applications, so they'd either have to print them off online or wait for me to send some to them to fill out and then send back." Gia gave a look that meant she wasn't finished talking but was deep in thought. She suddenly gave a quick glance at me and then back at Kirova, as if she just discovered some kind of loophole. "Unless…Natasha could be my legal guardian."

My eyes were wide as I turned my head towards her. She gave me one of those I-am-a-genius smiles that she did now and then. Then she kept on talking. "She's eighteen. She may still be in her parents hold here, but she's still legal with everything else. She got me into this, so unless you were to send me home, I'm her responsibility. Just like her parents enrolled her until further notice, she can enroll me."

Holy shit. Gia was making everything that was complicated seem so simple. "And besides, even if all of that doesn't work, I'm eighteen too. I should be able to come here myself without my parent's permission. But despite all this, this is still your decision, Headmistress Kirova. What can we do?"

To my surprise, Kirova looked just as awestruck as the rest of us in here. Before we arrived, Gia seemed uncertain about what to say to what, now it was like she was some kind of honors student, suggesting possibilities on how she could stay at St. Vladimir's. That, and she guessed them all herself, making Kirova look slow.

"Miss Lynn, you are aware of the tasks that you must do if you do manage to apply to go here, am I correct?" Alberta asked, looking down at her.

"Yes, ma'am."

Alberta glanced at Dimitri, looking puzzled. He apparently didn't know what to say either, so they both drew their attention to Kirova, who was looking at Gia as if she was reading her mind, trying to look for any trap or catch into what she was thinking. But it seems that Gia has won the fight. Kirova had pulled out multiple sheets of paper, like she had with my own parents, and placed a pen on top of them. "Ms. Lynn, all you need to do is sign these sheets. What you write will determine what you can do to as you're enrolled here, _if _we enroll you."

Gia smiled generously. "Thank you very much, Headmistress."

"You can stay here and fill everything out, ask me or Alberta if you have any questions." Then she glanced over at me, then up at Dimitri. "Guardian Belikov, would you please escort Miss Alexander to pick up her new schedule and dorm room?"

I almost nearly panicked when I found out that Dimitri was going to take me to get a new schedule and what not, but then again, he was an official guardian. All he did was try to bring me back here, so there shouldn't be any harm done. Right?

"Yes, Headmistress Kirova." He replied. He tapped the top of my chair lightly to remind me that I had to go. I glanced over at Gia, who was filling out the papers like she was taking an essay. She glanced back and smiled.

"I'll see you later."

"Right. See you." I replied with the same smile. I wondered if she was going to be interrogated more because she was now in the office alone with Kirova and Alberta. It was probably better than being alone with- Damn it, why did I keep judging him?! It was probably because that he was one of the more elite guardians that he was more loyal than others, and that everything he does is because he's told to, not because he wants to. He probably didn't want to physically force me and Gia to come down here against our will. He probably didn't want to see us constantly questioned by the headmistress. I wonder if the other guardians were like that. I know I didn't learn much in my month's worth of time being here, but I now know that I have a lot left to learn.


	4. 3: Reunion

I still remember what happened the very the first day I came here officially- after Kirova's interview with my parents and I. It suddenly popped in while I was being accompanied by Dimitri, who was directing me to get my schedule and show me my dorm room. The first time I saw the academy, I thought it was some sort of a large haunted mansion, and I was a little bit scared to go in. But right after my parents managed to successfully sign me up, I seemed to have liked the academy. I replayed some of the things that occurred in each class. I did have to introduce myself constantly, and it seemed there was only one class where nearly every one of the students wanted to find out more about me. It started right when I peeked in and opened the door to the classroom. Since class already started, my entrance was out of nowhere; and when the door echoed its shut behind me, all of the boys and girls turned to stare at me. At first, I froze, holding my old schedule with a surprised reaction to the class, but I quickly regained my composure.

"…Is this Bodyguard Theory and Personal Protection 1, are you Mr. Alto?"

He was a rough man from the start, but he looked at me as if he evoked seeing me before, and then nodded.

"It is, I am, and you're late."

I always thought that was a good way to welcome someone new. A few whispers passed through some of the students as they continued to look at me, some other's attention back on the teacher.

"Well, I got lost in this labyrinth of a school." I replied back. I was glad that this was a mixed class, and not one completely filled with freshmen. Even though I was already a senior, I still had to take beginner classes since I was new. Before glancing over at me and then the rest of the class, Guardian Alto picked up a card and began skimming it as if it were a list of instructions. Then he started talking again.

"Class, this is Natasha Alexander. She's new to St. Vladimir's and will be staying with us for the rest of the semester." Some of the faces turned back around to look at me and I smiled back politely. Some smiled back and some were just poker faces. Before I knew it, Alto was still talking. "Natasha, is there anything special about you that you'd like to share with us?" For a moment, I thought he was expecting me to reveal a deep and dark secret, but it was just a question that any teacher would ask a new student, but he sounded like he was suspecting something of me. Gracefully, I started walking through the rows of kids until I reached the front of the classroom. I knew there had been peeping eyes, since like I usually do, I dress whatever I felt was necessary for me to feel good. I was wearing a very tight metallic navy thermal top which wrapped around my upper and mid curves easily. With the jet black skinny jeans and studded belt, it could probably show that I meant business. I wore my usual charm necklace and a couple of rings on my fingers, and my white heels clacked against the tile floor as I made my way to the front. I turned around a looked at the surrounding students. There were so many things I say about myself, I didn't know where to start, so I took the safer approach.

"Anything in particular you guys want to know?"

"Yeah." A guy's voice said first. My attention got averted to a guy with dark shoulder length hair that was streaked all around with maroon. He seemed intelligent. "What race of vampire are you? Though from the way you look, I think we can already tell." Well…he did until he opened his mouth some more. There were a few quiet chuckles in the room, and Alto gave a heavy sigh.

"I was born with Dhampir and Moroi blood." I replied. The chuckling stopped and I saw Alto glance over at me curiously. The guy that asked the first question raised an eyebrow.

"What? No way. Is that even possible?"

"Apparently so. I'm mixed." I could see a hint of a smile on the guy's mouth, but he apparently saw the seriousness on my face since it soon faded. My gaze went from him to the rest of the class then. "Anything else?"

The question about my race was the only personal question that I was asked throughout my introduction. The others were somewhat legit, others were a bit whack, but nonetheless people were getting to know me a little. I had gotten my assigned seat and then patiently listened to what Guardian Alto had to say for the rest of class. Luckily for me, he didn't make me copy the whole board of notes that he had written before I arrived, but instead, he gave me a book to copy them down on my own time. When the bell finally rang for my next class, I had gathered my things promptly and walked out the door, feeling like I was being watched by someone. The rest of the day passed by quickly, and to my dismay the only person I really got to talk to was the guy in my first period class that asked me about my race. As the month went by, I didn't meet a lot of people, and somehow I had already begun to detect future rivals. Each night I went to bed was torture because of the bad dreams I was having, and I did realize that they were worse than before I entered in the school, which was why I decided to run away after a month of being in St. Vladimir's. I had received more harm than good.

And now, a month later, I am back in the academy, and I definitely felt weird coming back after my absence. My schedule did change, but only a little. My Bodyguard Theory and Personal Protection class was now 2nd period, and it somehow got switched from first course to third. They probably considered I'd get more training from taking a higher standard class instead of beginner. Now for first period, I had Basics of Elemental Control, which I'm guessing has something to do with my Moroi side of heredity. Luckily for me, I got there the same time all the other students did. Most of them looked young, not young enough to be freshmen, but a few others looked my age. So this class wasn't too mixed, but it did have its differences. When I looked around from student to student, I noticed something entirely queer. Most of them were slightly pale and very thin. I had forgotten that Moroi and Dhampirs had varied in looks as well, and that I'd probably stick out in this class. I even figured that some kids may think that I was in the wrong class, but no one bothered me about it. As soon as the late bell rang, the teacher walked to the front of the class. She looked just like everyone else did, pale and skinny. Her hair was brown and reached down to her collar bones, and her eyes were a sharp green color. She seemed young to be a teacher, but the dress suit and reading glasses she wore made her look like a professor. Kind of like how Alto had on my first day, she pulled a small note out of her pocket, glanced at it, then glanced around the class.

"Is there a Natasha Alexander in here?"

All the gazes went to me, since I was obviously an unfamiliar face. I raised my hand politely and smiled. "That would be me, Mrs…"

"Mrs. Kathleen is my name." She replied back with an open smile. She glanced at the note once more and gave a puzzled look. "Now, I know that you're new to this class since you had a schedule change, but…it says you were absent for the last month."

Some students stayed silent, others mockingly 'ooo'ed as if I was cutting. Well technically, they were right.

"Well…I figured you knew why." I replied, trying to sound as simple and not teasing as possible.

"Hmm, no dear, I don't. But I'm not making any accusations." She replied. She then set the note down on her desk and suddenly her mood shifted when she looked at me. "Well, since you are new to this class, how about you introduce yourself?" Unlike Guardian Alto, she didn't make me stand up in front of class, but I still was currently the center of attention. I smiled as the whole group of kids stared at me with interest.

"As you all heard earlier, my name is Natasha Alexander."

"Hiya, Natasha." A girl's voice greeted. A few giggles followed after that, so I figured that she was a partial class clown. When I looked at her, she was like a porcelain doll. Her hair was black and reached down to her mid back, and her skin was pale and flawless. To my surprise, she was thin, but I could tell even when she was sitting down that she was the short type, possibly making her not as thin as most Moroi but still smaller than average. Her neon yellow spaghetti strap tank top seemed to stick out more than the rest of the class as well as her diamond heart necklace. Her jeans and shoes seemed pretty normal though. You could see that she had dimples when she smiled widely.

"Hey." I replied back, grinning. The girl had learned forward on her desk to get a good look at me from the side. "You look a lot different than the rest of us in this class. Are you a Dhampir?"

The stares had sharpened as everyone seemed to study me more closely. I figured I would be asked this all day, so there was no use stalling them. "You are half correct."

"Ooh, what's the other half I'm missing out on?" She asked then. Mrs. Kathleen was still standing with her arms wrapped around a book she was holding, but her full attention was on me as well.

"I have Moroi genes in me too. That's why I was put in here."

The girl that was questioning me now gasped and her eyes partly widened. "For _real_?!"

"I didn't even know that was possible." Another girl next to her said.

"Mixed breeds are very rare in this country, and we actually have very few left. But now I guess we are honored by the presence of one." Mrs. Kathleen pointed out. Interested mumbles had sounded throughout the classroom. Then she snapped her fingers as if she just recalled something important. "Natasha, since you yourself are of Moroi blood as well, can you use any special sort of elemental magic?"

At first, I didn't know what she was talking about, but then I remembered the special abilities that Moroi did have, that and the time I got a spirit user's blood mixed within my heart and crown tattoo on my ribs.

"I'm not exactly. Would having a spirit user's blood mixed with tattoo ink count as being able to use elements." The room had quieted down a bit. "Because while I was gone, a guy that was a spirit user donated some blood, and I actually got it mixed with the ink that an artist used to tattoo me so that I could possibly be a spirit user."

"Is that supposed to be some kind of ritual or voodoo?" Another girl's voice sounded. I turned to the other girl and she looked my age, and very dark. She was a little bit paler than the other Moroi in the room, and her hair was dyed jet black and reached down to her cleavage where the ends curled a bit outwards. Her eyes were a faded sky blue color that read distrust across them. She wore a silk black tube dress that tight around the top and bottom, but loose around the midsection, emphasizing how model-thin she was, and the clear glass wedged heels she wore looked stable yet easy to shatter at the same time. She seemed to have liked to dress semi-formal like me at times, but all in one she looked like a dark angel, but I couldn't pass judgment on her just yet.

"I wouldn't say that, since I thought that it was an idea that wasn't common but everyone would think it was an interesting idea."

"It's not common and it's _not _an interesting idea." The girl replied with scorn. I looked at her puzzled at first, but then I had realized that she must have been one of those very loyal Moroi who would think it was wrong to use blood for such purposes. To her, it could be like cannibalism, though I didn't kill the guy that gave me his blood. Some of the other students were in awe of her reply, but I kept my cool.

"Well, what's done is done. Sorry if I offended you."

The other girl didn't reply and turned her attention back to Mrs. Kathleen. I even realized that the other girl that was questioning me earlier was quiet. I thought that she would have drilled me until the dark Moroi spoke. I then averted my eyes back to the teacher, figuring that I was done with my introduction. While class went by, I wondered how Gia was doing with signing up for enrollment into the academy. She had handled the meeting with Kirova pretty well, but now that she was on her own temporarily, I wondered if she could win the headmistress over and be able to stay here; for whatever reason that could be. While Mrs. Kathleen was talking, I got tapped on the shoulder and looked to my left, to see the talkative girl looking over at me. She spoke to me in whisper tone.

"Don't let Amber get to you. She's one of those people that respect her kind deeply."

"Who?" I replied back.

"Amber Taint. The girl that just interrogated you." She pointed over at the Moroi girl that was to my far right. Glancing over, I eyed the girl that was darkly semi-formal and then glanced back before she knew that I was looking at her. "If she disagrees with anything that she sees or hears, she'll make it clear." Those kinds of people usually irritated me, since they would get upset because everything isn't going his or her way. But I guess that I had to give this Amber girl some space for a while, then I'd probably get used to seeing her, and she wouldn't mind my ways.

"I don't think it's bad." The girl said then, and I blinked, not really sure of what she was talking about. "I mean about the whole Moroi blood being in your tattoo. I mean, as long as you didn't kill the guy that gave his blood to you, I don't think it's bad at all." I smiled in return. At least there was one person who respected me for what I did so far, and I decided that I could trust this girl. "I'm Meghan by the way. Meghan Whitmur."

I grinned. "Nice to meet you, Meghan."

* * *

I had made it to my second period class earlier than before, because I didn't want to go through a déjà vu moment and go through m very first day again. This used to be my first period class, only it was third coarse, and there were entirely different students around than the ones I saw. This was an all junior and senior class. The people that arrived early were making conversation with their friends, but some of them glanced over at me, seeing as I was someone that wasn't in their class before. The funny thing was, I was wearing the exact same outfit that I was wearing on my first day of being in St. Vladimir's. Same tight blue metallic thermal. Same pants. Same shoes. Same necklace and rings. Everything was the same as before when it came to my attire. I noticed through another door that Alto was talking to someone that I couldn't see through the narrow window, but he didn't look very happy about whatever he was talking about. I noticed then that he actually wasn't the only adult in the classroom. I noticed Dimitri and a few other guardians were talking briefly in the back of the room. I had passed by them without realizing it when I went through the entrance of the classroom.

Blankly, I had walked over to a random seat, not really thinking about if it belonged to anyone or not, since most of the class was standing since class hadn't started yet. I sighed heavily as I set my book bag down on the desk and rubbed my temples with my fingers. A group of novices that sat to my right were talking quietly but normally, but I had glanced over at them when I realized one of them pointed at my direction in a questioning way. The whole small group then looked over at me and I met their gaze. When nobody said anything, I decided to break the silence.

"Is something wrong?" I asked. The girl closest to me pointed at the desk.

"That seat belongs to someone."

"I wouldn't know." I replied. The girl that spoke seemed serious, but not discomforting like Amber. Her hair was very long and dark, almost black. Her skin tone was about the same as mine as well as her figure; well, I could guess I was a little bit thinner than her, but we had the same figure shape. As harmless as she seemed now, I could tell a little bit that she was anxious about something.

"Are you new here?" One of guys in the small chair group asked.

"I am…sort of." I replied. "I came to this school, and then I ran away for about a month."

The girl next to me blinked, and her lips had parted a little bit, as if she wanted to say something desperately to me, but she managed to keep it to herself. Either that or she decided to ask me questions first.

"Why did you run away?"

"It wasn't safe here for me." I replied. For now, that was all I was going to say. I didn't feel like repeating myself about my Dhampir and Moroi blood having brutal side effects and how they beat me to the point of leaving the academy. The look on the girl's face softened.

"I can totally understand." I gave her a half smile. She looked understanding, but she still looked like she was holding something back. I didn't want to make her feel pressured, but I honestly did want to know what else she had to say; as long as it wasn't bad. She then spoke again. "Stan Alto can be a real bastard sometimes, but as long as you don't piss him off, he won't scare you." I then knew the instructor's first name, _finally_. It was easier to call him Stan than Alto all the time. This girl probably didn't know I had him before, or the rest of the class for that matter. The late bell finally rang, and everyone returned to their seats. A girl that walked through the aisle I was in stopped walking and stared at me.

"You're in my seat." She said quietly, and I could tell she wasn't trying to be rude.

"Oh, sorry about that." I replied. "Excuse me for a moment." I managed to grab my things as she placed some of hers on top of the desk. I managed to grab both of my handbags and got out of the desk. The moment I tried squeezing through her was the moment that Stan had walked right out of the little office he was talking in earlier and into the actual classroom. I froze the moment his eyes darted sharply at me while most of the kids were going to their seats, quieting down their conversations once sat down.

"Well this is certainly a déjà vu moment." He said, and I could hear a bit of a mocking tone in his voice. "So nice of you to rejoin my class, Natasha."

I heard little whispers, most of them questioning if I was ever in this class or not. The gaze that I could feel the most aside from Guardian Alto's was the girl that I was talking to before. I looked around then, considering to answer everyone's question.

"I was in this class at a different period." I said to everyone who I expected was questioning my existence. Whether I was technically new or not, I had a feeling that Stan wouldn't be sparing me a nice welcome back now.

"She _was_," Stan then said. "Until she decided to skip class for the last month." As much as he was right, I wanted to say that he was wrong. At least it wasn't for no reason, since I had a motive for everything I did, and Stan probably knew it; but didn't care. I had a feeling he knew how to make everyone feel bad about anything they've done.

"Why'dya skip?" A voice called out. Some voices of enthusiasm wanted to me answer the question, but I didn't know how to explain it, so I said it in the simplest way as possible.

"You probably wouldn't understand."

"What? We're all the same here, of course we'll understand!" The student replied back. I hadn't realized that Stan walked over me, and his loud voice woke my ears up when he spoke again.

"She's apparently having bad dreams. You know, nightmares that aren't real? That's why she ran away."

I suddenly turned towards him, feeling shocked that he would try to embarrass me. "It's nothing like that! They're not like nightmares that a regular human or anyone else could have. It's like they're trying to tell me something or they're predicting the future. All of this is happening because I'm-"

"A mixed breed." Stan cut me off. Some of the students had confused looks on their faces as if he just said something in another language. He seemed to have noticed, since he kept talking. His palm suddenly landed hard against my shoulder. "This girl was born with Dhampir and Moroi blood. This may confuse you, since Dhampirs are simply half Moroi, but that's what makes all the difference. Picture her completely Moroi, and then add another half to her, as well as the other abilities Dhampirs have. It may seem supernatural, but it does have some nasty catches. Why don't you tell them some of them, Natasha."

It was as if I had to give a presentation to the class about my genealogy or something. Sighing, I started walking towards the front of the room, putting my bags in an empty seat I passed by in the first row. Well that was certainly good news. I faced the class, who gave me undivided attention, and glanced over at Stan. He nodded and stared daggers at me as I began to speak.

"A person that is Dhampir or Moroi can be born with an unpredictable look. He or she can be tan and all muscle, or can be pale and super skinny. As you can see," I opened up my hands to emphasize myself. "I look more Dhampir than Moroi, but there are some abilities I have, whether they're pretty common or pretty screwed up. I do have a lot more strength than the average human would have, I am a little fast, I don't get thirsty for blood but I do get insanely thirsty now and then, and I am a user of elemental magic…such as spirit." The class was silent in awe and some had replied with interested side comments. "Yes, there are some pretty nasty side effects to all of this, however. Like Guardian Alto had said to you all, yes, I do have nightmares. But all my senses work in these dreams and it all seems for real, like its foretelling something. Funny thing is, the dreams had gotten worse when I enrolled in the academy, and I felt like the more I stayed, the more serious the nightmares could have gotten…so I ran away, in hoping that I could find more good than harm."

Stan was still staring, but not as frighteningly as he was before. Pacing slowly to his board, he was silent for a moment, but then glanced at me sharply.

"You were in Alaska, from what I heard." He said. I nodded in reply to confirm that he was correct. "Did you get attacked at all during your absence?"

That was when I froze, and I think some of the students could sense my sudden apprehension. Looking at the back at the room, the guardians' faces were the same as when they were talking to each other, only a little bit more hardened when Stan asked the question. I had a feeling that he'd think I was playing dumb if I told him about how Dimitri and his crew of people came and kidnapped us, so I sighed and told him what he wanted to know as I locked my hands together behind me.

"Yes." I said quietly, but the whole room was so silent you could probably hear people breathing. There were a few mouths agape and whispers going through the room once more.

"And you weren't quite prepared, now were you?"

"…No."

"So how did you manage to survive a Strigoi attack? Hmm…?" Stan then inquired me. Luckily, I was wearing my thermal shirt, so no one could see the long cut I had gotten on my forearm, but I still grasped it with my other hand to find out that it was still sore. I would have to see the nurse later about it.

"My friend, Gia, was with me, and she had a lighter. She burned the back of his neck and he just gave up on us then."

"You both probably had no idea that it was a Strigoi, didn't you?"

"Not at that time. Now I know that they're not impervious to fire."

Stan had suddenly walked close to me, looking serious. "You see, that is why you shouldn't have left the school in the first place." His face had gotten so close to mine that I could smell the morning coffee in his breath. "You would have known about the Strigoi's existence, and you would know what to do and how to kill them if you ever encountered one; such as set them on fire, decapitation, or drive a stake through their heart. It's all basic, Natasha, and you couldn't even recall learning about that during your first month? And if they were to find out that you were a mixed breed, that would make you an even more valuable target, maybe as good as a royal Moroi." Folding my arms across my chest, I glanced the other way, not wanting to talk to Guardian Alto anymore. Talking to him was worse than talking to Headmistress Kirova, which was very strange.

"You're just lucky you're alive." Stan then said quietly but coldly. "You can take your seat now."

My arms then dropped to my sides then and I walked over to my desk while the eyes of some of the students still followed me, including the guardians in the back. I never felt so embarrassed in my life, and by a teacher too. When I managed to relax in my seat, Stan's intense look then glanced over to someone behind me. I turned slightly, and realized that he was staring at the girl that I spoke to at the beginning of class. Something told me that she wasn't too happy about seeing him, and that there'd be another long lecture coming. Stan's eyes widened in mock surprise as he circled the room and came to a stand beside the girl's desk.

"What's this? No one told me we had _two _guest speakers here today. Rose Hathaway. What a privilege! How very _generous _of you to take time out of your busy schedule and share your knowledge with us."

Here we go again, another student embarrassment moment; he must have been used to doing this kind of stuff. So the girl's name was Rose. I figured it would be easy to remember, but what did she do to deserve Stan's interrogation? Her face had hardened a bit and I think I saw a bit of red forming on her cheeks. She had to be irritated. Stan then had gestured for her to stand up.

"Well, come on, come on. Don't sit there! Come up to the front so you can help me lecture this class some more."

Rose looked grief-stricken. "You don't really mean-"

Stan's taunting smile dried up. "I mean _exactly_ what I say, Hathaway. Go to the front of the class."

The silence stayed in the classroom, but seemed to have gotten thicker. I'd be shocked if he did this to every girl in the classroom, but that would be just plain bizarre. Out of honest curiosity, I had raised my hand to get Stan's attention as Rose strode down the aisle of desks to make her way to the front.

"What is it?" He said to me.

"Well…umm…" I started nervously. "I've been here the whole time she was here and she didn't do anything wrong."

He laughed sarcastically at my statement. "What you've done for the past month is _nothing _compared to what Rose has done."

"What did she do?" I then asked, starting to get irritated at his mocking voice. He ignored me then and turned to Rose once she reached the front of the class where I had been before. It seems like out of the rest of the class, I was the only one that had guts to speak up. I had met Rose's gaze for a moment and she looked a bit confused, as if to why I would stick up to her when I just met her and barely knew her.

"So, Hathaway," Stand said cheerfully as he strode to the front of the class with her. "Enlighten us about your protective techniques."

"My…techniques?" She replied.

"Of course. Because presumably you must have had some sort of plan the rest of us couldn't understand when you took an underage Moroi royal out of the Academy and exposed her to the Strigoi threats."

That sounded about as bad as my runaway story, but not worse, so far.

"We never ran into any Strigoi." She replied stiffly.

"Obviously," Stan snickered. "I already figured that out, seeing as how you're still alive."

I saw her glance at me with disgust and confusion, and my face had reflected hers as I glanced over at Stan, but she spoke quickly before I could. "Well _she's _still alive, and practically new here. If she could survive a Strigoi attack, I'm pretty sure I could. Can't you give her some credit?"

I took it as a compliment. Stan glanced over at me with a sneer and then back at Rose. "This doesn't concern her now."

I finally found my voice. "It did a few minutes ago."

"We settled this conversation, Alexander." He said sharply at me. I still couldn't believe he was acting this way, but I managed to bite my tongue. Playing with a few strands of my hair, I continued to look at Rose's despairing conversation with Guardian Alto. When she didn't say anything for a while, Stan had started pacing the front of the classroom in wonder. "So what'd you do? How'd you make sure she stayed safe? Did you avoid going out at night?"

"Sometimes." Rose replied. I guess unlike her, me and Gia went out almost every night in Alaska. But that was when I didn't know any better. The night when we got taken back here was the night where we got attacked by a Strigoi for the very first time.

"_Sometimes_," Stan repeated in a high pitched voice, making Rose's answer sound incredibly stupid. "Well then, I suppose you slept during the day and stayed on guard at night."

"Er…no."

"No? But that's one of the first things mentioned in the chapter on solo guarding. Oh wait, you wouldn't know that because _you weren't here_."

I found myself glaring at Stan with my mouth slightly agape without even realizing it, or even caring if he saw me or not. I had glanced around the classroom to see if anyone else felt pity for her. I really couldn't tell because they were either wide-eyed or stone faces. I could tell that deep inside that Rose was getting aggravated.

"I watched the area whenever we went out." She said. Good for her for defending herself.

"Oh? Well that's something. Did you use the Carnegie's Quadrant Surveillance Method or the Rotational Survey?" Stan replied. Rose didn't say anything, so he continued. "Ah. I'm guessing you used the Hathaway Glance-Around-When-You-Remember-To Method."

If he wasn't the teacher, I would have gone up to him and punched him in the mouth. I couldn't believe that he was making Rose feel like an idiot right in front of the class; her AND me. I couldn't help but say more words, and this time I didn't raise my hand to wait for his confirmation.

"Mr. Alto, do you really find it necessary to embarrass her in front of the whole class?" I asked. I could hear a couple of intakes of breath behind me as if people were predicting my fate would be sealed right here right now. I wasn't buying that for a second, since I felt I had to stand up for this poor girl.

"Natasha, stand down." He replied quickly but sharply.

"You just adore taking pleasure in making students feel terrible, don't you?!" I said then. That was when some of the students 'ooo'ed, knowing that I probably insulted or angered him. That's when he turned to look at me, red faced. Rose's eyes were wide with astonishment when she frequently glanced over from Stan to me. He had walked over to my desk and slammed both hands on it as if to try and scare me. A flinch was all he got.

"_You'd better watch your mouth._" He said to me. Glaring at him, I stood up from my desk. I actually found it surprising that I had the courage to stand up to this guy. Maybe another Dhampir/Moroi gene ability was high confidence. I had my doubts, but it was a possibility.

"I don't think it's _me _that needs to watch _my _mouth." I replied. When I looked at the back of the room, I could see that even the guardians were taken aback by my behavior. "Teacher or not, this is no way to treat a person."

"_Excuse _me? No, Alexander, _no_. Last time I checked, I am a teacher with the full capability to treat students the way it'll get them to learn. I doing this to teach everyone here a lesson, and if you don't like the way I'm teaching you can-"

"Suck it." I finished, but meant it the other way around. He didn't even begin teaching yet and he already gave me a reason to hate him. I saw his face get even redder as he took a small step towards me, and at the same time Rose had glanced at me frantically as if she didn't know what to do. Then she managed to turn to Stan and talk before he did.

"Strigoi aren't lurking around every corner out there," Rose shot in. "It's not like what we've been taught. It's safer than you guys make it sound."

Stan immediately turned back to Rose. "Safer? _Safer_? We are at war with the Strigoi!" He yelled. I knew that I had a high chance of getting in trouble after this conversation was over. "One of them could walk right up to you and snap your pretty little necks before you even noticed him- and he'd barely break a sweat doing it." I replayed the moment we were attacked back in Alaska through my head. Nathan did have a good grip on me and he was so close to biting my neck, and I could barely move him away. I suddenly knew what Stan had meant. "You might have more speed and strength than a Moroi or a human, but you are nothing, _nothing_, compared to a Strigoi. They are deadly, and they are powerful. And do you know what makes them more powerful?"

Rose looked the other way, looking like she was fighting back tears. I felt so bad for her for being yelled at by this bastard of an instructor. The class was quiet again, and it was past a quarter of the way done just because Stan talked personally to us in here.

"Moroi blood…" Rose had whispered.

"What was that?" asked Stan loudly. "I didn't catch it."

"You've got to be-" I started to say, but a dark voiced 'ahem' cut me off. Turning around, I looked at the guardians at the back of the room. The one who intentionally grunted loudly at me was Dimitri, who looked aggravated and shook his head to silence me. I sighed heavily and sat back down in my seat, rubbing my temples with my fingers.

"What did you say, Hathaway?" Stan asked again. Rose had spun around to face him.

"Moroi blood! Moroi blood makes them stronger."

I stared in disbelief as Stan nodded in satisfaction and took a few steps back. "Yes. It does. It makes them stronger and harder to destroy. They'll kill and drink from a human or Dhampir, but they want Moroi blood more than anything else. They seek it. They've turned to the dark side to gain immortality. Desperate Strigoi have attacked Moroi in public. Groups of Strigoi have raided the academies exactly like this one. There are Strigoi who have lived for thousands of years and fed off generations of Moroi. They're almost impossible to kill. And _that_ is why Moroi numbers are dropping. They aren't strong enough- even with guardians- to protect themselves. Some Moroi don't even see the point of running anymore and are simply turning Strigoi by choice. And as the Moroi disappear…"

"…So do the Dhampirs." Rose finished.

"Well," he said, licking sprayed spit off his lips. "It looks like you learned something after all. Now we'll have to see if you can learn enough to pass this class and qualify for your field experience next semester. The same goes for you." He glanced at me and stared daggers through me.

I had to bite my tongue at this point, because if I didn't I probably would have said enough to Guardian Alto to get me expelled. Rose quickly walked back to her seat and slumped into it, obviously peeved. We had to sit through the rest of class after going through the horrific incident that Stan had put us through. It was hard at first, but I then eventually didn't care and just waited for class to eventually end. When the bell finally did ring, everyone got up full of things to talk about, but I gathered my things and went out the opposite door. I could barely hear fast footsteps trying to catch up to me from afar, and after a few seconds, a voice called me.

"Natasha! Hey, wait up!"

I instantly acknowledged the voice and slowed down to a halt. I turned around to see that it was Rose, the girl that was also being tormented today in Stan's class. She didn't run very far, but she did look like she would rather walk. I blinked while she was able to catch her breath.

"I barely know you, but that was amazing. What you did."

I gave a small smile in reply to her statement. "I didn't want to see you being bitched at by Stan. You were right when you said he was a bastard."

She gave a small chuckle and glanced at another way before glancing back at me. "There's no one in there that has the guts to talk to him like that. Not even me. I never got a chance to say thanks. So, thanks."

I shrugged. "I wouldn't let anyone talk to me that way, instructor or not. He seemed to have insulted you more than me."

"Well, I was surprised to when he lectured you up there first. I thought that you were a common student like the rest of the kids in that class, but now I hear that you're new. Apparently we ran away for the same reason."

"I wish we could talk more." I replied.

"Well, what class do you have next?"

I rummaged through one of my bags to search for my schedule. Reluctantly, I was able to find it quickly, since I wasn't able to stay for too long. "I have…Russian 1 next."

"It must suck that you're a senior but have to take lower rank classes." Rose replied dully. I agreed with her and was expecting something like this to occur on my schedule once I was enrolled to St. Vladimir's. Even though I finished my junior year at my old school, I could enter the academy as a senior, but would still have to take select beginner classes, whatever they may have been. My first period class was mixed, and my last class held only juniors and seniors, but I had no idea what to expect from Russian or any of my last classes.

"It does suck"

"But hey, all the juniors and seniors have the same lunch together. Maybe I can find you and speak to you some more."

"Sounds like a plan." I replied, smirking. "I'll see you then?"

"Yeah, see ya." She replied. She began to walk away, but she had then stopped and looked like she was deep in thought. "Oh, and uh…don't take everything Stan said about me literally, or anyone else for the matter."

I blinked. "Anyone else?"

She nodded. "Word has gotten around rapidly about me and Lissa's return. "

"Who's Lissa?"

"Oh, she's my best friend, and a Moroi. I'll introduce you to her at lunch. But yeah, like I was saying, if anything sounds overstated about me or you, don't believe it. I can tell that you're a trustworthy girl."

I had to smile in reply. "Don't fret. I won't." She waved farewell at me and I waved back before we went our separate ways to go to our next class.


	5. 4: Suspects

3rd period had passed by quicker than expected. Now I was in 4th period: Advanced Guardian Combat Techniques. I think this class was similar to regular school gym class, only we actually got more physical here. When I had walked in the gymnasium, there were a bunch of kids from different grade levels already inside, and there were numerous guardians spread out on the courts, whether they were guarding or they were the actual coaches. With my tight thermal and heels on, I was definitely not dressed appropriately for this type of class, but learned that we got to bring our own uniforms, so I'd put one together at the end of the day. As I passed by the hard floor, I noticed that I attracted some attention after all. The entire gymnasium echoed with conversations and not everyone noticed me passing by, but quite a bunch did see me pass by. They either whispered something to their friends or just plain stared without saying anything. Some people spoke loudly enough for me to hear them, which seemed pretty silly.

"Say, who's the new girl?" I heard a guy from afar shout. I had glanced at him only for a brief moment, smirked, and continued my way to an adult trainer. She looked like a regular school gym coach, only she was a Dhampir and a fully fledged guardian.

"Name?" She said, staring at her clipboard.

"Natasha Alexander." I replied. Since the list of students was probably organized by last name, I was most likely on the very first page on the attendance list. She then blinked and made a check mark on the paper, I'm guessing next to my name to mark me as present.

"Welcome back to school, Natasha." She said then looking at me, a grin that I couldn't tell was fake or real, but so far, Stan Alto was the only teacher that treated me badly. "Now then, you're going to have to be assigned with another novice that you'll work with for the rest of this semester so that he or she can help you cover what we went over for the past two months. Does that sound okay?"

"Yes, ma'am." I replied meekly. She began flipping pages through the packet on her clipboard until she used her pointer finger to skim down a list of whatever she was looking at now. Her eyes came back over to me.

"Most of the students here are working in groups of three. The only group that doesn't have three people is Giovanni Miller and Gia Lynn."

I had spaced out a bit until I realized that I heard something important at the last bit of the sentence. "Wait- did you say Gia Lynn?!"

"Yes." The trainer replied. I looked all over the gym, which wasn't too hard because there was at most 70 students spread all around the court. After a minute of looking around, I finally found Gia. Her wavy blonde and brown layered hair was all over the floor as she laid on her back and had her eyes closed. The guy, Giovanni, was on his knees next to her pushing her right leg towards her face, probably stretching her legs. She was very flexible, so she didn't look like she was in any sort of pain. I had then noticed that I may have been the only one in here not in a uniform. Gia was in a tight navy blue spaghetti strap tank top and black shorts; not the long baggy kind that most regular schools would require you wear, but the super short sophie type shorts that you'd catch cheerleaders or girls in the dance team wearing; not that it was unusual for her. I then examined Giovanni. He was making conversation with her and smiling, looking like he recently visited the orthodontist. His skin was a little bit tanner than the other Dhampir guys at the academy, but not too extreme. His hair was curly and dark brown, and even though he and Gia were nearly on the other side of the gymnasium, I could tell that he was maybe 2 or 3 inches taller than me. His Dhampir muscles seemed to show that he worked out now and then, but not too much on his own time; maybe when it was required. I would have to get closer to them to figure out how old he could be. I had realized that I was keeping the trainer waiting, and got back my composure.

"Them. I pick Giovanni and Gia."

"Alright then." She replied. I had then gotten a view of what she was writing, and she placed my name next to Gia's and Giovanni's. "Well then, Natasha, go up to them, introduce yourselves, and they'll explain to you what to do."

"Okay, thanks." I said quickly. I had then speed walked over to where Giovanni and Gia were stretching, my heels seeming to echo a little bit more loudly than the voices in the gym. Gia must have heard my heels clacking, because she then opened her eyes and then turned to her left, looking where I was walking towards her. I saw her beam in surprise as she then sat up from her stretch, and then Giovanni followed her gaze.

"Natasha!" She said as she then stood up and walked quickly in my direction. "Guess what, they're going to let me stay!" She shouted, hugging me tightly.

"I can see that." I said in reply, laughing. That was when Giovanni walked over to us both, smiling generously.

"You two know each other?" He asked. I detected a faint Russian accent in his voice. There were a lot of people here than came from Russia, I had realized, because I ran into a whole bunch of people that shared where they came from or that had the accent most Russians would have. I could see that he looked about his early twenties, twenty or twenty-one at most, other than that, he was cute. Gia nodded at him, her grasp still on my arm.

"We met in Alaska a month ago. Now we're inseparable…sort of." She said blithely. "This is Natasha." And then the turned her attention to me and pointed at him. "This is Giovanni. You're gonna love him."

I laughed at Gia's bright mood and introductory, then turned to Giovanni. "Nice to meet you."

"You can call me Gio if it's easier for you." He said. Gia and Gio sounded very much alike, but I think because of this I knew now who to call who what.

"Gia and Gio. What a coincidence." Gia teased. "But okay, we need to get started on our training."

"But wait-" I started. "How did you manage to get enrolled here?"

"I'll explain it to you later! Now let's get started. Look, I know you're not in uniform, but you might want to take your heels off." She pointed to my feet. Going into combat with six inch heels definitely wasn't smart, so I unstrapped my feet and placed my heels somewhere to the side. I walked back over to them, not really sure what kind of combat we were supposed to perform.

"Umm…what were you two doing before I came in here-besides stretching?"

"I was practicing my self defense." Gia replied, rotating her head to crack numerous bones in her neck. "But my joints got stiff after a while. That was why I had Giovanni here help me stretch. Which reminds me, you have to stretch too, Natasha; otherwise you'll probably ache all over the next morning."

Well that was good news. I got on the hard floor, needing to stretch my legs first. I wasn't nearly as flexible as Gia, but I could do body bending and twisting that other people couldn't. Gia pushed my leg back towards my face, but I began to feel pressure not because I wasn't flexible enough, but the fact that my outfit was pretty tight, limiting my stretch space. After a couple of retries, Gia realized the problem and groaned.

"This will never work. You need to wear something more loosely." She said. She pointed to a door far away from where they were standing. "The locker room is over there. I think they have spare tanks and shorts for the girls that don't have a uniform yet. Check and see if they have any left."

Getting most of the information through my head, I made my way to the door to the locker room, leaving my heels unattended with Gia and Gio. The locker room was very large, but still looked like any other one. Purple lockers were for the regular novices and the blue ones were for the specially trained, I was guessing. I looked over for another door and saw a light on, and then a big box through the window. Eagerly, I ran inside; and saw something that I would picture, but would have never thought I'd see in real life. There were two male students, rummaging through a drawer to my left. They didn't notice me at first, but their side vision must have seen my figure at the corner, and then they turned and stared at me surprisingly as if they weren't expecting anyone to come in. I saw the box on the desk next to me, but had paid more attention to the guys in front of me, wondering what they were doing. They both looked like seniors.

"Ummm…...what'cha doing?" I asked them both coyly.

"Nothing much…" One of the guys replied with the same awkward feeling tone. During the next pause, I was sizing them up, and they were sizing up me. One was tall, about six feet high, and looked intense but not threatening. His hair was dark brown, shoulder length, and wavy around the ends. He looked averagely muscular, but he looked like he had a large amount of inner strength if the muscles were put to use. He had on a casually picked gym uniform, a white tank and long black baggy sweat pants, and was wearing a long chain necklace with the initial R hanging from it. His eyes were dark blue and stared up and down my stature. The other guy stared at me with piercing grey eyes as if he was looking right through me. He was only an inch taller than his friend, and wasn't super pale, but was light enough to be a Moroi. In fact, he probably was one, since the light skin, tall height, and slightly emaciated figure gave away a very small likelihood of being Dhampir, so he obviously wasn't part of the novice class. His hair was blonde, chin length, and looked like it had a lot of volume in it. We all stared at each other unnervingly, sometimes glancing elsewhere, but still had our attention on each other. The blonde guy spoke, and I heard a British accent in his voice. "Do you need help with anything?"

"No, no." I replied, giving out a fake smile. "I was just looking for the box of spare uniforms. You two can continue doing whatever…you were doing." Deep down, I really wanted to know what they were doing, but at the same time if I did, I'd probably regret it. Slowly, I turned around to look at the box on the office's desk, still feeling the novice's gaze on me from behind. Unfortunately, this wasn't the box that Gia was talking about, seeing that it was filled with tapes, order forms, and referral sheets. I glanced around for another box. There was one behind the restroom door, looking small; but after crouching down to look at its side, I saw the writing that I needed to see: **Advanced Guardian Combat Techniques Attire**. Lifting the box off the floor, I could feel that it was light enough to be holding uniforms in it. The moment I used a pair of scissors to cut through the tape, the rough voice cut through the silence.

"Are you new here?" Asked the tall brown-haired novice. It must have been the way I was acting around the two of them that made the question pop out. I continued my process of opening the box.

"Yeah," I replied generally. "Why do you ask?"

The British blonde did the next talking. "There's a rumor going on that there's a new girl in St. Vladimir's that really told Guardian Alto off for embarrassing Rose Hathaway."

A rumor already? It's only been two class periods, but apparently some kids in my second class liked to talk a lot and made the word go around. I wondered if Gia had heard. "That's me." I replied reluctantly.

The two guys must have stopped looking for whatever, because then their full attention was on me now. By then I managed to get the box open.

"What person would want to defend Rose Hathaway? And from _Stan Alto_?" Blondie replied.

"I would." I replied exasperatingly. "And I don't give a fuck if Stan is the Incredible Hulk of this school. What does everyone have against her?"

"Since you're new here, you obviously wouldn't know." I had stopped rummaging for the right size tank and shorts and raised an eyebrow at him.

"And what wouldn't I know?"

"Well for one," The dark brown haired guy started. "Right before she and Lissa Dragomir ran away two years ago, she used to throw herself on every guy she wanted. She was super violent and got in major trouble for destroying school property at one time."

"What? You have to be stretching the truth." I replied, narrowing my eyes elsewhere. "I talked to her today, and she was really friendly."

"Well of course she would be. You stood up for her for being teased by Stan, and nobody else in this school would have the guts to do that except for you or her."

The blonde guy chuckled a bit. "Great minds think alike I suppose."

Rose had warned me about the trash that was going around the school about her. These two guys were an example of what she was talking about, but I don't get to know a person from what other people say about him or her. Kind of like how the Dhampir guy had just got an opinion about me from the British Moroi. I stared at him, disgusted.

"Are you saying that _I'm_ that kind of person?" I asked, pointing to myself.

"Well it seems that you're the type of girl that only believes the good things about the person people talk about, and there are very little good things to be said about Rose."

"I can find out for myself if Rose is a good person or not, thank you." I replied. I managed to pull out the tank and shorts that I needed for class and began to leave the office to change in the stalls, but the Dhampir held his hand across my path to block me and the Moroi had shut the door with his foot. I just wanted out of here now, but these guys were onto something about me.

"Hey, whoa now," The brunette cut in. "There's something else we want to ask you."

"I don't have time for this." I replied bitterly.

"Who's your human friend?"

So they had seen Gia before too, but I wasn't saying anything that would get her in trouble. "What's it to you?"

"She's in our Calculus class. When she introduced herself, the kids had a lot of questions."

"She's pretty open for a human surrounded by vampires most of the time here." British Blondie said then. They both chuckled as if they were hiding something. But they didn't seem to know I was onto them.

"Will you both just shut up and let me leave?" I said, now glaring at them.

"Why did you run away from here? " The brunette said, still blocking my path. Now I was getting irate.

"I said _move_!" I shouted at them. When they didn't immediately get out of my way, I pushed right past them to change in one of the large bathroom stalls. Behind me, I could hear their hysterical laughter. What right did they have to ask me a whole bunch of personal questions and telling me what and what not to believe? I hated people like that so much. I wondered if Rose had to deal with this on a daily basis. I remember in my middle school years and freshman year I used to start a lot of fights for people talking shit about me or my friends, but I managed to get more self-control over the years, and got physical only if I felt it absolutely necessary.

It felt a lot more comfortable to be in this uniform than in a thermal, tight jeans, and heels. Just for the sake of it, I had pulled my hair back in a ponytail as long, figuring it could snag to anything and become a liability due to how long it was. The shorts were black with a blue thick line on the side. The tank top was plain white and would seem normal enough until you saw the St. Vladimir's label on the lower back of the shirt. People have said my lovely lady lumps stick out the most in outfits like these, uniform or not, so I wondered if I would distract Giovanni in any way.

I left the stall and noticed that the two guys were no longer in the office. Good; they must have gotten the message through their head finally. Feeling prepared, I walked out of the locker room and back into the gymnasium. Gia and Gio were still in their places and looked like they had already begun practicing their self-defense against each other. Gia was the assaulter and Gio was doing various blocking moves. However, I knew Gia could give some hard hits, and it still looked like it hurt Gio a bit to block the worst of the blows, yet he kept his composure cool. If Gia were in a fight outside of school, she'd use more than her hands to attack her opponent; her entire body was a weapon, from the shoulders to elbows, to her knees, legs, and head, she could use any part of herself to damage someone; even her breasts…if she felt she needed to.

I watched as I walked slowly towards them. Some novices that weren't participating yet watched the two of them possibly for an example of what to do. Gio still kept his guard up when Gia began to slow down on the attacks, and then it seems as Gio's self-defense test was over, and I managed to walk right up to them at the same time.

"That was amazing." I said, smiling.

"Yeah, good job!" Gia congratulated. I could see that she was working hard, since her face already seemed red with warmth from the action. Gio wiped his face with his hand to smooth some perspiration off.

"All in the years of practice."

"Natasha, you look adorable in that outfit." Gia then said to me teasingly. She used a finger to swipe of a strand of hair off my shoulder. "Now watch as I can not only give bad hits, but take them too."

I blinked. "Gia, shouldn't you wait for a minute to recover?"

She stretched her arms out wide. "Nah, I'm fine."

Giovanni gave a crooked smile as he glanced over to me. "She's pretty tough."

Gia giggled slightly and then glanced at my hair, probably because hers was down the whole time. "Can I use your hair band for a moment?"

"Sure." I replied. Slipping off my hair band, all my hair fell down towards my back and past my shoulders, and I handed the band over to Gia so she could use it temporarily. While she pulled her hair back, Gio got in offense position.

"Lemme know when you're ready." He said. The moment Gia finished putting her hair in a ponytail was the same moment where two figures suddenly walked up to Gio's side. My eyes were looking down at my feet at that moment, worrying that they might get bruised, but when I glanced up at the two guys that were near Gio, my feet were the least of my concerns. There they were again, the two guys I met at the locker room.

"Giovanni? Didn't anyone ever teach you to never hit a girl?" The brunette said, smirking lightly.

Gia scrunched up her face a bit as she looked at the two guys while thinking hard. Then she snapped her fingers and her expression brightened. "You two are in my Calculus class!" She snapped her fingers a couple of times more as if she was trying to recall something. "Uh…umm…oh! Rodney," She pointed at the brunette Dhampir, and then at the blonde. "And Wade!"

I glanced over from them to her, wondering if she thought that they were a threat at all. From the way she was acting, I supposed not. Wade nodded his head to show that she was correct with his name, and so did Rodney, who got back to his previous question with Giovanni.

"So Gio, you're really going to try and beat her down? You'd better go easy on her, since she's a human and all."

Giovanni blinked and glanced at Gia. "You're a human?"

She grinned in reply. "Yeah. I didn't tell anyone in this class because no one asked."

"But you're not like us. You can get bruised up bad by any Dhampir. That's just how weak you are."

Gia scoffed at that comment. "I've been physically trained the moment I stopped wearing diapers. I can handle anything you throw at me." She replied confidently. Rodney and Wade glanced at each other as if she just said something stupid.

"What about a Strigoi? Think you're mighty enough to take down one of those?" Wade asked, almost bitterly. Then Rodney spoke after.

"You may not have met one yet, but you could never kill one of those. _We're_ not even ready to meet one face-to-face."

Gia glanced over at me briefly, and we both knew that he was half wrong. Right about the not ready to bring down a Strigoi part, but wrong about not meeting one yet. So they still didn't know about why I left or what happened during the time. I hoped to keep it that way towards anyone who couldn't keep their mouth shut, and Gia didn't say anything, luckily.

"Well, if I ever do meet one, I'll let you know how I handled it." She said cooperatively.

"So, why are you here anyway?" Rodney asked, not really sounding rude or compassionate. Gio looked like he just wondered the same thing.

"Actually, I was going to ask you that. Since there's not much a human can do here anyway, unless you volunteer to become a feeder or something."

Gia kept her cocky grin. "Well, you know, I just thought if I enrolled here this place my suck a little less."

Wade laughed loudly and tossed his head to keep the hair from getting in his face. "Love your school spirit."

Gia smiled in reply, but the raised an eyebrow at Giovanni. "What are feeders?" I thought of the same question.

"They're humans, like you, that volunteer to get their blood drained by Moroi who need the nourishment everyday or every other day."

Gia looked interested, but at the same time not comprehending. "As much as that sounds helpful to the Moroi, I'd like the keep my blood to myself. Sorry, Wade." She then said, jokingly.

"Hey, it's alright. There are plenty of other fish in the sea." He replied.

They must have realized I've been silent this entire time, because once the four of them stopped talking, they glanced over at me to see if I had anything to say. I glanced from person to person, and then Gia cackled.

"Wow, Natasha, I'm surprised you can go this long without talking!"

"Something on your mind?" Asked Rodney. I knew he was doing it to irritate me, but I kept my demeanor cool and calm. I just hoped he got the _back off_ message from the way I was staring at him.

"Oh nothing." I said bleakly. I then turned to Gia. "I just didn't know which part of the conversation to jump into, is all."

Giovanni laughed a little. "Happens to the best of us sometimes."

I really didn't want those guys around anymore, so I asked one of the things that I could have used to an advantage. "Wade, you're a Moroi. Don't you have another class to be in at the moment?" I asked, trying not to sound suspicious to Gia, but assertive to the blonde Moroi. He scoffed at my question.

"Yeah. I just needed some air, but now that you mention it, I'm a lot better now. I probably should be getting back to business now." He waved goodbye to us and nodded at Rodney before walking off elsewhere.

"And my partner's probably waiting for me somewhere in this room." Rodney said, rolling his eyes as if he were disappointed to have to work now. But nonetheless, he complied with it. He winked at Gia before leaving.

"See you later, little girl." And he left, but Gia just had to reply.

"You make being human sound like a bad thing!" She shouted and laughed. Then she turned her attention back to me and Gio. "Those guys teased me a lot during Calculus today."

"But they were nice to you, right?" I asked.

"Of course! You saw how they were just now. They like to tease." She replied. Ain't that the truth? These guys talked to her like they knew her for some time and what made her happy or mad, but when I talked to them, they were basically taunting me. How would she know if they were going to do the same thing to her after a while? As if it were nothing, she had changed the subject. "Well now that that's done with, I say we get back to our training, shall we?" I found it funny how Gia could always look around herself and think nothing was wrong, yet it made her always look happy, so everything was okay for now. After that moment, we continued with our class and switched to other forms of combat other than self-defense. To my dismay, I'd always get my ass kicked by Giovanni, but he's been in this school longer than I have, so it couldn't have been my fault. Gia wasn't a Moroi or a Dhampir, but since she entered into elementary school, her parents would force her to take different types of combat classes in case she ever got in trouble and so she could keep in shape. She used to tire over it in her younger years, and sometimes it took its toll on her, but now all fifteen years worth of training of boxing, cage fighting, karate, self-defense, name it - was used as an advantage for her here at St. Vladimir's. After a long hour of physical training, we were all bushed, and the assigned matron that recorded our progress thankfully gave us good news.

"You three did more than enough training to earn your participation grades. I'm proud of you all, especially you." She pointed at Gia. "You may not be one of our kinds, but you showed a lot on how to use offense and defense."

Gia grinned. "Just took years of practice."

"Well, it was all worth it." The matron replied with a smile, and then she walked off to another group of novices. Another question suddenly popped in my head.

"Say Gia, what kind of classes do you have on your schedule?"

"Normal classes." She replied, shrugging. "Since I'm not some sort of vampire species, this is the only specialized class that I'm taking. The others are just classes that you could take at any school."

"I see." I replied, thinking that she might feel left out on most of the important things in this school. She continued talking as if she read my mind.

"I know. People treat me like I'm the most different person here, and they figure that's why I can't take any classes that involves the study of Moroi or Dhampir or Strigoi- I should at least be taught about those."

"Then why don't you?" Giovanni asked, as if there was another solution. "This academy has a library, and it'd be shocking if they didn't have books about what you want to know about us."

"I'm not usually the reading type, but…" She started. Gia put her pointer finger to her mouth and looked like she was thinking hard again, then she narrowed her eyes to Giovanni, looking tense about asking something. "Think you can take me there after lunch?"

"Sure I will." Giovanni replied. "In the meantime, you girls might change your clothes now, since class ends in five minutes."

We had forgotten all about our uniforms as if we had worn them to the academy. "Whoa, good thing you reminded us." I replied. We waved bye to him and we changed quickly in the locker room. Gia dressed just as I had expected on her first day of school; sort of like me. A black top where the left and right side was transparent and the sleeves were slightly puffed and only covered the shoulders slightly, white skinny jeans, and black wedged heels wasn't out of the ordinary for her, but other girls may have felt uncomfortable wearing something as revealing as her outfit. A navy choker and a couple of rings on her fingers added in on her attire. To tease her, I whistled.

"You changed while you were gone?"

Gia laughed. "Those guardians that attacked us back in Alaska had brought back our clothes and what not with them. These and my other clothes were in my dorm room."

I blinked in surprise. "Whoa, that's right. I didn't get to see mine yet. I just changed in a nearby bathroom with these clothes that I had in my bag."

Gia laughed in reply and grabbed my arm. "We should check it out now before lunch passes us by."

"Think we'll make it?"

She snorted. "Lunch is forty-five minutes long; of course we'll make it back in time to eat!"

We left the gymnasium and headed upstairs where the upper school was and where most of the higher rank students, like juniors and seniors, had their dorm rooms in. Due to them being organized alphabetically, I was near the beginning of the set of dorms, and Gia was very far away, but we could still see each other after school hours as well. I pulled out the key to my room that the headmistress had given to me by the time I made it to my dorm room. Unlocking the door, we walked in and already saw that the room itself had gotten itself decorated. The walls were painted dark velvet while the carpet and window blinds were black. The bed was made with the same colors, the headboard was brown, but the pillows and sheets were arranged in black and white, while the giant comforter blanket on top was black with a purple Victorian design on it. The only thing simply designed about this room was the drawers, closet, and the side table with the lamp shade. Me and Gia looked around in awe as I then glanced over to see some bags, boxes, and luggage on it. So they had rummaged through Gia's house for our belongings. I walked clumsily over to the bed and flopped onto it.

"I almost don't want to leave." I said, nearly sinking into the thick comforter.

"I feel the same way," Gia said, still looking around. But then she put on her 'brag' face and glanced at me. "But I'm hungry. You should leave your stuff here until lunch is over."

"Fine." I said. I gave my room one last long look before me and Gia finally left to head downstairs. On our way to the cafeteria, I had remembered what happened earlier in Stan's class, and decided to tell Gia about it since she didn't already know.

"Did you hear about me back talking one of my teachers today?"

Gia raised an eyebrow. "No. What happened?"

I decided to make it brief for now. "He embarrassed me in front of the whole class. He did the same thing to this girl named Rose, and I stood up to her, and I nearly got in trouble for doing it."

Gia beamed. "Wow, courage much?"

"You'd do that too, Gia, and other things." We both laughed as we were close to the cafeteria. "I was invited to eat lunch with her and her friends."

Gia kept her grin on. "That's great! At least you finally have people to talk to."

I side glanced at her questioningly. "You're coming with me too, Gia. Don't forget that."

"Of course I will," She replied. "You can't go anywhere easily without me."

I rolled my eyes and hid my laughter that time. The lunch hour may have only been for juniors and seniors, but it was still packed, inside and outside the cafeteria. You could have figured a couple of lowerclassmen might have been skipping classes to eat again.

"This place is really jam-packed." Gia said, watching as many kids walked by or sat with groups in tables, food or not. "Did she say where we were supposed to meet her?"

I figured she was talking about Rose. "No. She just said to meet up with her at lunch. And I have no idea who her friends are."

One guy with bronze hair had stopped walking after glancing at us for a second. His gaze mainly on Gia, actually her arm. Casually, he walked over the moment we saw him coming.

"Whoa…that is some awesome work." He said, pointing out her arm tattoos- her whole sleeve. It was consisted of very girly yet symbolic stuff; exotic flowers, exquisite fruits, and other things that blended with the category. Gia had gotten it inked on a year ago, and it cost her over a thousand dollars, but to her it was worth it. Gia smiled lightly.

"Thanks. It was worth the pain."

"You look like someone who can take a lot of pain." He replied, smirking.

"You mean someone that's a pain in the ass." A voice cut it, and I knew it was familiar somehow. All three of us turning, we turned to see the unsatisfied Amber Taint behind us. She glanced at Gia, then at the random guy. "You should have heard her today during Calculus. I have never seen a new person that could brag so much on her first day. I guess that's how your kind meets new people."

She was referring to humans when she said 'your kind', and said it in a tone that made it sound bad. Gia rolled her eyes and sighed exasperatingly, but kept her demeanor cool. "What do you want?"

"My friend wants to talk to both of you." She eyed both Gia and I and pointed at a girl that wasn't standing too far-off from us. As we looked at her, she returned the stare, and it looked like she had something in mind. She looked awfully short- her dismay if she was an upperclassman, and her hair was blonde with ringlets. Her face was pale and plump with high cheek bones and big blue eyes. All her features added in to the little girl look, but I wasn't one to judge her just yet. Gia glanced over back at Amber.

"What does she want?"

"Go find out." Amber replied smugly. Sharply, she turned and walked to a different table in the commons. We glanced at each other for a moment, then to the stranger novice, and then to the mystery girl, who was gesturing with her finger for us to come over to where she was. The guy looked like he had something else to attend to in the meantime.

"I have to go now, but…" He said figuratively. "It was nice meeting you two. I'll ignore what Amber said."

So he knew who Amber was too, apparently. Gia smiled at his sincerity. "Nice meeting you too, stranger."

He laughed briefly. "Call me Jesse."

Gia nodded. "We'll remember that. Bye." She replied, and then he walked off. He was pretty attractive; I almost wanted him to compliment my tattoos, but that wasn't the case at the moment. I looked over at Gia.

"Should we?"

She shrugged in reply. "Might as well if she wants something."

We looked over to our front and stared walking towards the girl, who was apparently Moroi since she was pale and small; in height and weight. We seemed to tower over her with our heels on, but she would still be shorter than us without them. She smirked as we stood as a trio.

"Hey there." She said casually.

"Hiya." Gia replied, and I greeted the blonde as well. After that, she had examined us closely, and at one point encircled us to see the rest of what we looked like, then she stared at us from the spot she stood before and gave us a suspicious look.

"Why don't I know you?" She asked, as if she memorized the entire list of students in this school. But our reply was pretty obvious at that note.

"We're new here." I said in reply.

"Where did you transfer from?"

"Well…_I'm _from Seattle."

"Which one?" She answered back. It sounded as if she was drilling us.

"Why, exactly?"

"I just want to get to know you guys." She said with a smile.

"Seattle, Washington." I replied then. She glanced over to Gia who was looking at me briefly until she was being watched by the doll-looking girl. She pushed some of her hair back behind her shoulder.

"I'm from Alaska."

The Moroi girl raised both of her eyebrows and then crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Interesting…" She replied, looking over to her right. At first, I thought she was suddenly getting bored asking questions, but I realized that she was looking over at Amber's table, and Amber was looking back at her with a devious grin. The doll had smiled back, and then turned back to us.

"Okay, you two; spill." She started, suddenly looking sharp at us. "Which one of you had the tattoo with the Moroi blood?"

Me and Gia glanced at each other once more, wondering how she knew about my crowned heart tattoo. Then again, she was apparently with allegiance with Amber, so she had to have been told about it. All she had to know now was who. When we were silent for a moment, she talked again.

"And don't play dumb with me, because I was told by a little birdie that a new girl came here talking about how she got Moroi blood inked into her skin, and she seemed to have gotten it done in Alaska. That seems to narrow it down to you two, seeing as you both are new and have way too much ink in you."

"I doubt very much that you're a guardian, or an instructor. So what I'm wondering is why the hell are you asking about our business?" Gia asked simply but her tone was cold. The small girl laughed in reply.

"You sound just like _her_." She said. We weren't sure who she was referring to when she said 'her', but that was the least of our concerns. "And I have the right to ask anything anyone I want."

"And who are you exactly?" I asked then, giving her a disbelieving look.

"Oh, excuse me for not mentioning that. Mia. Remember that name well."

"Okay then, _Mia_," Gia replied mockingly. "Who were you talking to, suddenly interrogating us about personal things?"

Gia kept her eyes on Mia, but I glanced to my left once more, seeing if Amber was watching. She was, talking briefly to her friends, and when she met my gaze, her smile faded and her eyebrows pointed down a little bit. I ignored the dirty look and turned my attention back to the Moroi.

"That's for me to know and for you to maybe one day find out. Maybe; if you aren't too busy putting other people's blood into your skin." She replied arrogantly. I didn't even have to think hard about who she was talking to. Gia suddenly stepped forward, her finger pointed in front of Mia's nose.

"Look, little girl, I don't need your criticism or your judgment on what you _think _I do, but you'd better watch that scummy little mouth of-" She began to retort, but a hand had tapped my shoulder twice, and she seemed to notice and got cut off. The three us got our attention turned to a girl that might have been a senior Moroi with pale blonde hair. She looked like she felt as if she interrupted something important, but we truthfully would rather be speaking to anyone else besides Mia. She put her pointer finger to her chin and then glanced at me and Gia.

"Excuse me, but is either of you a girl named Natasha?"

"Yes." I replied. She seemed pretty harmless. "Why?"

"Oh, Rose told me that you'd be eating lunch with us. She couldn't find you, but she described what you looked like to me, so I offered to look around for you."

Gia grinned, suddenly forgetting all about the Moroi girl behind her. "You found the right girl."

The pale blonde Moroi smiled back. "Glad I did. I'm Rose's close friend-"

"Lissa Dragomir." Mia cut in suddenly. All the joy of meeting the other girl was suddenly lost, but at least we knew her name now. I did remember the two guys mentioning her name when they were antagonizing me in the locker room office. "Isn't this a surprise?"

Lissa looked just as confused as we did when we were called out by Mia. "Do I know you?"

"Most likely not." Mia replied. Something told me that she wouldn't be introducing herself to Lissa. "But I know enough about you."

"You'll just believe anything people tell you, don't you?" Gia asked frustratingly at Mia, who scoffed at her question.

"I've been here way longer than you have. How would you know if anything I believe is true or not?"

"Oh my god, can you please just shut up?" I asked then, getting tired of hearing her voice already. So much for a good first impression. She looked over at me briefly, looking disapproving.

"Don't tell me what to do." She simply said. We should have been saying that to her when she finally asked about the blood mixed tattoo that I had. She didn't know who had it, but she could have suspected us both equally; me for being a little bit quiet and asking short questions, and Gia for doing the most talking and getting close to losing her temper. She turned her attention back to Lissa. "For a royal, you _really _know how to make it known." She said. She was looking Lissa up and down with a grimace on her face. When I hear the word 'royal', I think of a king or queen. Sure Lissa looked casual, but she didn't look bad. She wore a thermal like me, only it was white and simpler looking, and seemed to have looked well with her hair and skin color. She wore a purple skirt that wasn't too short but wasn't long either. I'd say she look nice, and so would Gia, but Mia was looking at her as if she were a hobo. There came my speak-up-for-him/her instincts kicking in again.

"You've got to be kidding me." I said, turning back around to Mia. "I may not know exactly what a royal is, but now you're saying that she's not dressed good enough to be one?!" She suddenly moved forward so she'd be between us, forcing us to move to the side a little bit to keep our space, but she was staring straight at Lissa.

"I know what is required of a Moroi." She said, mainly to us, but kept her eyes on Lissa.

"Excuse me, but I don't count on looks to represent a royal." Lissa replied back, sounding a little annoyed herself.

Gia nodded her head in reply in agreement. She stared at Mia from behind. "Her top looks better than that phony brand dress of yours." She was talking about the tiny purple dress that Mia wore. It may have been pretty, but it did look like a designer knock-off up close. She turned her head slightly to the side to look at Gia once more.

"And it looks like you picked a size too small on your entire outfit. But don't worry; you're not the only one that tries to wear their dream." Those words earned a death glare from Gia, who looked like she was ready to punch her in the mouth. I glanced at Lissa, who also looked very stunned at what Mia had said, and then Mia turned her attention back to Lissa, beginning to lean towards her face. "It looks to _me _like it came from a garage sale. I thought a precious Dragomir would have standards."

I detected scorn used in the said word Dragomir. I was about to cut in and tell Mia off, but it seemed like I didn't have to. My eyes were still on her when I saw her suddenly yanked back about three feet, nearly falling. Looking up at her attacker, I saw Rose, the girl I stood up for in Stan's class. She had come just in time to catch us going against Mia, and apparently she had dirt on her too. With her hand still on Mia's shoulder, she turned her around roughly and looked her in the eye.

"She does have standards," She said boldly. "Which is why you're done talking to her."


	6. 5: Disorder Gia's POV

I watch Mia get yanked back by a girl I've never seen before. I'm guessing that since she was standing up for Lissa, she had to be the Rose girl that Natasha told me about. Looking around, we didn't have the entire common's area on us, but a few people that passed by did stop for a moment to watch what was happening. I would say if Rose hadn't come already, I would be the one jerking the doll back and threatening her, only it'd probably be by her little pale blonde hair of hers and not by her shoulder. She's insulted me enough for me to do so, but I just simply stood and watched the situation going down now in front of us. Mia glared at Rose, her big blue eyes widening with discontent.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She asked. Rose had let go of her shoulder and crossed her arms across her chest.

"Are you lost, little girl? The elementary school's over on west campus."

Ah, so she wasn't really a little girl after all, but she did look like one. She was way shorter than us, and our heels seemed to make her look smaller. A pink flush spread over her cheeks.

"Don't you ever touch me again. You screw with me, and I'll screw you right back."

I couldn't help but side comment to Natasha to that one. "Funny. That was supposed to be my line."

Mia then turned around, same angry expression put on her face. "You shut up. The same goes for you two."

I had done my same step-forward-point-finger routine again at that. "Oh, you've already screwed with me. You're lucky I didn't screw you back before she did." I retorted, pointing out Rose. I didn't know who she was, but at least she was on our side. I noticed that Lissa had shaken her head at both me and Rose to keep our demeanor in check. The only ones staying cool and collected were Natasha and Lissa. Rose had tossed her hair back and lifted her chin so she would be staring down at the little Moroi.

"And if you mess with any of us again, I'll break you in half. If you don't believe me, go ask Dawn Yarrow about what I did to her arm in ninth grade. You were probably at nap time when it happened."

I wasn't there to see it happen, but I had an idea on what kind of situation it was with whatever she's done to Dawn Yarrow. All I knew was that Rose could get physical if she felt the need to. It was a lot like me and sort of like Natasha, Lissa – I doubt she's the violent type. Natasha had crossed her arms as well as she raised her eyebrows at Mia, glancing at her and Rose.

"I'd listen to her." She said warningly. At that moment, what looked like a Moroi guy had walked up to Mia as if he were picking her up for something. She glanced at him briefly, and then back at us, giving us a long stare. I'd be guessing she was in defeat, since she grabbed the guy's arm roughly and then turned around.

"Come on." She said. She had let go and walked ahead, but Aaron followed slowly, since he glanced briefly at us. Rose gave a small smile to him.

"Hey, Aaron. Nice to see you again."

He nodded and smiled shyly back in reply before catching up to Mia. He seemed like a pretty innocent guy. As much as they seemed like the sweet kind, I usually like to meet a guy that can be aggressive; not towards me, but you get the idea. After the couple was completely away from sight, we all turned our attention towards each other. Rose was the one to speak.

"You okay?" She asked Lissa. "Any idea who I just threatened to beat up?"

"Not a clue." She replied. Natasha let her arms fall from across her chest down to her hips.

"Apparently her name's Mia. She came interrogating us before you two came along, then she was getting in all three of our faces."

"I have no idea what her problem is." I said then. "But apparently she's friends with this girl named Amber Taint, and I have a good feeling she started all of this."

"Oh, I think she's in one of my classes," Lissa replied. "But we don't talk. She's just another student."

"She has a major grudge against us because Natasha has-" I began to say, but the fact that Natasha seemed to shake her head and that Lissa was a Moroi made me stop. It may have been more comfortable to speak of it during another time. "Never mind. We can talk about it later."

Rose glanced over at Natasha. "Who's your friend?"

I had realized that I didn't introduce myself to the two of them yet. Being in a situation with Mia could really boggle your head, I'm guessing. "Oh, I'm Gia; her best friend. I'm guessing you're Rose?"

"Yeah." She replied. "Natasha really put her foot down on Stan today to support me."

"I would have done the same thing!" I chuckled. "I hate being antagonized by people, let alone teachers."

"I do too." Natasha replied. She then turned her head back, looking at the lunch line. "Say, you guys want to get lunch now?"

Rose nodded but Lissa had shaken her head. "Gotta go see the feeders."

I had come to a realization. "That's right! You're a Moroi, and they need feeders."

Rose had laughed. "Apparently you're new here too."

Natasha had then nodded a bit. "We both are. But we'll wait for you guys to finish before we get lunch."

"Okay," Lissa replied as they both began to walk away. "Be right back."

They walked to a room that seemed adjacent to the cafeteria. I'm guessing a shortcut for those who needed blood and then lunch. I looked around the commons area randomly as I waited patiently, while Natasha looked like she really wanted to say something.

"Something on your mind?" I asked. She glanced at me briefly.

"Do you think Lissa would dislike me too because of my Moroi blood tattoo?"

I nearly gaped. "Of course not! She seems really sweet. Amber and Mia were just being superstitious bitches."

She looked at me again, smiling but with an eyebrow rose. "What would they be superstitious about?"

I shrugged. "They must think that getting a spirit using Moroi's blood tattooed into a design in your skin must be some kind of voodoo or ritual."

"That's nearly what Amber had said in my Basics of Elemental Control class."

"Wow. She really must be superstitious." I replied, smirking a bit.

"Well there has to be some kind of tradition having to do with the Dhampir and Moroi here."

"Well if there is, I don't know about it." I started. "Maybe I can look it up at the library after lunch, since Gio is taking me there."

Natasha had turned her whole head to look at me now, and there had to be inquiry in her smile. "Say, Gia, do you have the hots for Giovanni?"

Whoa, I wasn't expecting that. I put my hands up in a warding gesture. "What? I just met the guy! He may be attractive, but I'm not one for love at first sight."

"Alright then." Natasha replied.

It was momentarily silent after that, so I changed the subject. "Does Rose know that you ran away from here two months ago?"

Natasha sighed. "Stan basically shouted all of my actions today during class. Everyone in that class knows now. What I'm wondering is how fast word will go around."

"Do they know where you went to escape?"

"Yep. Stan blurted that out too."

"I am so glad I don't have his class."

"But here's the thing about Rose and Lissa," Natasha said then. "Apparently they ran away too. Only they were gone for two years."

My eyes widened. "Two years!? How could they go around for two years yet you only stay away for a month!?"

"Maybe they knew more about what to do and what the academy might do to hunt them down. Or maybe they constantly moved around from place to place. They've been here way longer than we have, so they must have thought out the plan gradually so they'd know what to do incase whatever happened."

"That was what I suggested we do when we were at the amusement park last night." I replied sorrowfully.

"But we had waited too long for that." Natasha replied. Then she had blinked. "Wait a minute. It's been nearly a day since we arrived here. Your parents don't realize that you're gone yet?"

Oh wow. My parents weren't even on my mind until now. They used to be the least of my concerns, especially back in Kirova's office, but it has been a while. Natasha must have read my thoughts, since she kept explaining the problem.

"And you can't just text them saying, 'Hey Mom, Dad; it's me. I'm spending most of my time in a new school I enrolled into in Montana. See you later!' I highly doubt your parents are that noble."

She was partly right. For some things that I did, my parents would let it slide, but there have been some things that I have done that they did not approve of. They didn't even know we left to hang out in the amusement park at midnight. I didn't even bother to tell them that I had accidentally slammed the door in my grandfather's face. Well, honestly, it wasn't an accident. He wasn't as brittle as a typical old man, and he wasn't even that old yet, but he was certainly naggy, and irritating at that. He was slowly chasing me down the hallway towards my room, demanding that I would have all of my tattoos and piercings removed, on and on he went, saying that his once sweetest little girl was now a delinquent. It was when he nearly threatened to tell my parents to make me get my ink removed that he was right in front of the door to my room, and I just used the only approach that was left to shut him up. I may seem cool and collected when I'm laid back and feeling on top of the world, but I will use any and all means necessary to win at a situation.

"I'll think of something." I said to Natasha thoughtfully. I did need a plan when it came to my parents, and fast. At that point, we were quiet, but Rose and Lissa had come back before we realized it. When I glanced over at Lissa, she looked livelier than before. I guess if Moroi had a lack of blood for some time, they would appear looking wan.

"Welcome back." Natasha greeted.

"Problem solved?" I asked. I had already known the answer, but we could never be too sure. Lissa had laughed at that question.

"Everything's okay now."

With that, all four of us headed towards the lunch line. It was quite short, as well as the time we had left to eat. Getting teased by Mia and waiting patiently for the two of them to go to the feeders left us only fifteen minutes to eat. As much as I like to eat my food as slowly as recommended, I usually binge it when I feel I'm super late for something. Natasha's a different story. If she doesn't finish her food by the time she has to do something or go somewhere, she saves the food in a bin or in a big plastic bag. She's not one to let food go to waste unless she truly detests it. As the line moved forward, we saw the select food choices, which weren't too far from basic but wasn't something you'd see as a fancy buffet. Looking around, I had grabbed a set of cheese fries with sliced tomatoes and onions. Natasha had grabbed a cheeseburger and only a couple of fries. Rose got what looked like chicken nuggets and fries, and to my surprise, Lissa only grabbed a yogurt. I couldn't help but question.

"Aren't you hungry?" I asked over to Lissa.

"Moroi rarely have an appetite after drinking blood."

"Oh, I see." I replied as casually as possible.

"So how'd classes go?" Rose asked, to all of us since it was technically our first day. Lissa was the first to respond.

"Okay. Lots of stares. A _lot _of stares. Lots of questions about where we were. Whispering."

"Same here." Rose said.

"Same for the both of us too." Natasha then said. "But only a few people remembered who I was from two months ago. The others didn't know I ever went here until they were told by some teacher or kid."

I felt Lissa's stared return to me. "Have you actually been here before? Or did you run away too?"

"Nope. This is the one and only time I've ever been here. When Natasha met me, we seemed to have never been pulled apart. Kind of why I'm here with her now." There was a pause as we went out to look for a free table. Some people had left lunch early to do other things, but the place was still partly crowded. "My classes were alright so far. I especially like my Calculus class where a lot of people had wanted to get to know me better since I'm just a human."

I had spoken that last part without even thinking about it. It seemed like the other three girls had skidded to a complete stop since I nearly walked into Natasha. All three sets of eyes were on me.

"Wait," Lissa said, looking flabbergasted. "You're a human?"

I glanced at each face as if I've been caught guilty of doing something illegal. "Yes. Is that bad?"

Rose had spoke next as we then continued to walk around for a seat. "Well, no. Lissa and I just thought you were a Dhampir when we first saw you, and the only humans in this school are the feeders. I don't think we've ever had a human student before."

"Don't worry about me." I confidently replied. "I mean no harm."

"Sometimes." Natasha corrected me. I had took out one of my cheese soaked fries and threatened to beat her face with it as we laughed at her comment. Rose gave a sidelong glance over at Lissa.

"You're okay with that? They aren't bothering you, are they?"

At first, I thought she was asking about us, but Rose quickly added more detail to the question. "About the other kids talking about us and what not."

"No- It's fine." Lissa replied. She looked like she was being honest, and I was no mind reader, but I could tell she wanted to change the subject. Pulling a piece of paper out of her pocket, she handed it to Rose. Me and Natasha glanced at it, seeing that it was her schedule.

_1__st__ Period Russian 2_

_2__nd__ Period American Colonial Literature_

_3__rd__ Period Basics of Elemental Control_

_4__th__ Period Ancient Poetry_

_-Lunch-_

_5__th__ Period Animal Behavior and Physiology_

_6__th__ Period Advanced Calculus_

_7__th__ Period Moroi Culture 4_

_8__th__ Period Slavic Art_

I stared at some of the classes dumbfound, but others I had at different periods. I was in regular old Calculus rather than Advanced Calculus, and I had Slavic Art after lunch. While staring blankly at the paper, my free hand acted on its own to pick up a cheese fry and stick it in my mouth finally.

"You must be like…ten times smarter than I am." Natasha said, breaking the silence. Lissa laughed as Rose looked closer at her schedule.

"Nerd. If you were in Stupid Math like me, we'd have the same afternoon schedule." We had stopped walking again. "Why are you in elemental basics? That's a sophomore class."

Lissa simply eyed her. "Because seniors take specialized classes."

I thought I heard Natasha exhale relief. "Good, because for a moment, I thought I was put in a class full of lowerclassmen as a joke."

Lissa then looked over back at Natasha. "You have it too?"

"First period. " She replied. We fell silent once more after that. The only kind of Moroi I've heard of was the spirit-using kind. Since Natasha had gotten a spirit-user's blood tattooed in her in disguise of a crowned heart on her ribs, I wondered if that technically made her capable of using spirit abilities. If she was put in that class, she had to be somehow. Compared to everyone else here, my schedule seemed pretty normal, and the only way I could learn more about these Dhampir, Moroi, and Strigoi were at the library if I ever got the chance to go. I'd figure I'd skip Slavic Art today to get a first glance at it and do some research. As for Natasha, I probably didn't have to look at her schedule since she was a mixed breed; chances were the classes would all vary, from novice classes, to Moroi classes, to any regular school classes. She had to have one of everything on it. I was just a regular human with a hope of doing something special in this school. After a long minute, I was still brainlessly eating my fries, and Rose had spoken again.

"Is Ms. Carmack still teaching that? What'd she say?"

"She says she's not worried. She thinks it'll come."

"Did you- did you tell her about-"

"No. Of course not."

"I don't think I have that teacher for my class." Natasha cut in. "I have someone named Mrs. Nina Kathleen teaching my elemental basics class."

Lissa blinked. "I never heard of her."

"Maybe she's new." I had said, realizing that I hadn't spoken in a while. After another pause, a new voice that wasn't too far had called for one of us.

"Lissa!"

All four of us turned around, and saw a girl at a nearby table wave at us. Natasha and I had glanced at Lissa while she glanced over at Rose. Since the girl called her name, they had to know who she is. My curiosity couldn't be blatant enough.

"Who is that?" I asked Lissa quietly.

"My cousin, Natalie." Lissa replied. Since silence followed after that was said, and the girl kept gesturing us to come to her table, Lissa had begun walking towards it. "Why not?"

We were taken back for a moment, but then we had followed her footsteps. It seemed like every passing second I was in this school I would meet someone I'd never seen before. It may have been different for Natasha, since she was here for a month before she left, but she did say that she had forgotten some people. Natalie had got up from her seat when we were about a few feet away from her. Her other friends at the table eyed us with quiet curiosity, but she looked like she wasn't going to hold back anything. She threw her arms around Lissa and Rose, leaving me and Natasha just staring. Seeing Natalie more closely and clearly now, I could see that she was a Moroi just like Lissa. Her eyes were jade-green and her hair was jet black. I thought she looked a little pretty, but I could tell that she wasn't one that Rose and Lissa hung out with often. Before I even realized it, she was talking ninety miles an hour.

"You're back! I knew you would be! Everyone said you were gone forever, but I never believed that. I knew you couldn't stay away. Why'd you go? There are so many stories about why you left!" Lissa and Rose had glanced at each other, and she had me and Natasha lost as she prattled on. "Camille said that one of you got pregnant and went off to have an abortion, but I knew that couldn't be true. Someone else said you went to hang out with Rose's mom, but I figured Ms. Kirova and Daddy wouldn't have been so upset if you'd turn up there. Did you know we might get to be roommates? I was talking to…"

She talked on and on and on, and I saw her fangs flash out now and then as she spoke. I had glanced over at Natasha, who looked like she was staring blankly right through everything in front of her until she noticed that I was staring at her. One of the ends of my lips quirked up from the humor of hearing Natalie talk nonstop, and Natasha had to smile at her too. Rose had smiled politely, letting Lissa deal with the onslaught until Natalie had finally stopped to ask a question, and something told me that it made the two of them uncomfortable.

"What'd you do for blood, Lissa?"

The entire table of people drew their attention directly on her, and she froze. Rose had instantly jumped in on that question.

"Oh, it's easy. There are a lot of humans who want to do it."

"Really?" Asked one of Natalie's friends, wide-eyed.

"Yup. You find 'em at parties and stuff. They're all looking for a fix from something, and they don't really get that a vampire's doing it: most are already so wasted they don't remember anyway." Rose paused for a moment, as if she was looking for other things to say, but then she simply shrugged in a cool and confident way. "Like I said, it's easy. Almost easier than with our own feeders."

"Did _she _give you any blood?" One of the girls at the table asked, and she was pointing directly at me. I had no idea who she was, but sometime told me that she knew I was human, whether she could tell or someone told her. All eyes were drawn to me suddenly. I'm sure it was an honest curious question, and she wasn't purposely asking it as if she were making fun of me. So I replied teasingly.

"What? No! I'm a human, but I don't give blood; I swear." I said laughing a bit, raising my free hand up a bit. Some of the people at the table continued to stare at me, while the rest seemed to have thought my answer was reasonable and regarded their attention back to Rose and Lissa, as if I just went through a five minutes of fame session. Natalie however directed her attention to me and Natasha, with her eyebrows perked up.

"Who're your friends?" She asked inquisitively.

Lissa blinked as if she had no idea what she was talking about, but must have realized that Natasha and I were still around, and answered smiling.

"This is Natasha and Gia. I met them earlier today being interrogated by…um…" She must have forgotten Mia's name, because she had paused and looked up as if she was trying to recall. Rose had glanced over at another table, the one where Amber was sitting in. Mia and Aaron sat next to her, along with a group of royal looking Moroi who were laughing about something. Rose must have glanced over at the table to point out the location of the small blonde.

"Hey, Natalie," She started, turning around and pointing at where Mia sat. "Who's Aaron's new girlfriend?"

Natasha didn't answer the question, and neither did I; because I wanted to see if Natalie knew her as well. "Huh? Oh. Mia Rinaldi." She replied. Our expressions were blank, so she asked, "Don't you remember her?"

"Should I? Was she here when we left?"

"She's always been here," Natalie replied. "She's only a year younger than us."

That only made me hold back a laugh. These people were either seventeen or eighteen, making Mia either sixteen or seventeen. The funny thing was how that was unexpected when she looks like a kindergartner.

"Why was she so pissed off at us?" I asked. "None of us knew her."

"I don't know," Answered Natalie. "Maybe she's jealous about Aaron. She wasn't much of anybody when you guys left. She got _really _popular _really _fast. She isn't royal or anything, but once she started dating Aaron, she-"

"Okay thanks," Rose interrupted, apparently not the only one that detected a montage of words coming from Natalie. "It doesn't really-"

Her eyes suddenly averted to something or someone behind me. Someone had obviously passed by me and stopped, because I had suddenly felt a finger trace along my right arm. It startled me at first, but then I turned around to find the guy that complimented my tattoos earlier – what was his name? Jesse, that was it. He was now with me again, this time with no bickering from Mia or Amber.

"We meet again," He said. "I never got your name before you were verbally attacked by Amber."

I chuckled a bit. "I'm Gia."

"Gia," He repeated. "That's cool." He grinned as his finger lifted from my arm and his gaze turned to Rose, who seemed to be watching him admirably. Natalie and her friends stared at me and Rose with awe, as if we were goddesses. Natasha had also watched us, looking only slightly envious. _Slightly_.

"Hey Rose, welcome back. You still breaking hearts?"

Rose smirked. "Are you volunteering?"

His grin had widened. "Let's go hang out sometime and find out. If you ever get parole." Just like I had responded when he talked to me, she laughed lightly as well. He glanced over at us and spoke again before walking off. "Bye, ladies."

The awe-struck eyes still stayed on us. Natasha met this guy too, but only for a few seconds. These girls looked like they really knew him, like there was something big behind his elegant looks.

"Oh my gawd," Exclaimed one girl, as if she had just got some juicy gossip. "That was _Jesse_."

"Yes," Rose said, smiling. "It certainly was."

"I wish I looked like you." She added, mainly said to both of us with a sigh. All eyes fell on us again. Since Rose was half-Moroi, her looks were human. Natasha was Dhampir and Moroi, in other words, had more than enough Moroi blood in her to somehow have the opposite effect on looks, which was what made her look perfectly human as well. As for me: I was perfectly human. My people would normally be filled with girls who would think that they were fat when they were probably like, eighty something pounds. Now these Moroi girls are already at that model-slim skinniness, and I actually didn't blame them for wanting to look like us. Our figures had stood out more to others, particularly men – with the large breasts and wider hips, the influence on humans was actually opposite to Moroi. They wanted our curves while my kind would want their slim look. Not me of course, I liked the way I was; and I'm pretty sure Natasha did too.

As long as the last fifteen minutes of lunch seemed to have lasted, lunch actually ended quicker than I thought. Luckily, I had finished my cheese fries before the bell had rung to go to our next class. The people at our table had broken apart and scattered in different directions to different classes. Lissa and Rose waved goodbye to us before leaving to go to their remaining classes. Even though Natasha didn't have any classes with me, she still stood with me for a moment.

"You're going to the library now?"

"If I knew," I replied. "Otherwise, I wouldn't be waiting for Giovanni."

He had come as if he was on cue. He lightly tapped my shoulder twice and smiled when I saw him.

"Hope I didn't keep you waiting." He said.

"Nope. Just on time." I replied. I glanced over at Natasha and grinned. "Can I see you later on tonight?"

"Sure." She replied. "I'll leave my dorm room door unlocked for you if I'm available."

"Okay," I replied. "See you later."

"Bye!" She said, before walking off towards a hallway next to the cafeteria. Then Gio and I glanced at each other.

"I gotta escort you quickly," He said. "Since from where the library is, my next class is on the other side of the school. Let's go on now."

* * *

The quick paced walk wasn't too much torture on me, but I would much have rather walked. Since I wasn't interested in my next class, it wasn't required of me to rush here, but I didn't want Gio to be late for his classes. We had stepped in front of a large building that looked a lot like the public library near my house back in Alaska. It was painted a very pale blue that almost seemed translucent. It wasn't multiple stories like those old and famous juggernaut libraries that are scattered all over the world that usually could be half a skyscraper in size and have multiple floors of books, but it certainly was huge. The doors were one of the rotating section like doors that you had to push and walk forward to go through. I remember I used to like pushing the door and at the same time run in continuous circles and end up making myself dizzy when I was small. Two long lamp posts stood on two small patches of field in front of the library to light the way in the evening. They were glowing white instead of yellow like the rest of the lights in the school. We stared at the building for a moment before Gio had let his grasp go on my arm.

"Well. Here it is. Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to give you a tour on the inside."

I chuckled a bit. "That's okay. You go be a good boy and run to class."

"Good idea. Catch you later, Gia!" He said before running off back towards the numerous hallways we had walked through to arrive here. The one-minute bell had beeped through the school as I had pushed forward a sectioned door to walk into the building. I had to say the sudden warmth inside of it had stunned me at first, since it was a little bit frosty outside and I was usually used to cold weather since I was from way up north, but my body eventually became tranquil from the temperature change.

Looking around, I saw that I was right about the library being huge; outside AND inside. It was lightened by slightly dull orange lights, making look made for autumn weather. Stone tiles covered half the floor while the other half was just plain brown rug. Some of the book shelves were organized to be in the shape of a giant star, making the reading area more impressive. There were numerous wooden tables and chairs scattered all around for places to sit, but there were the sources of comfort around the corners as well. I looked around for some kind of computer, hoping to find an inventory since this library could hold nearly all the books on the planet; well, maybe not. But it was loaded with them. I did find notice a couple of students placed randomly around the library; some were novices and some were Moroi, and there were a few groups around as well; sharing homework, studying, or just using the place for socializing. Some of them even waved at me as if I knew them.

I did find, however, that the categories of selected books were labeled on the shelves, making it easier to find what I was looking for. I went to the hall of books that were marked under Culture/Lifestyle, and immediately looked through titles. I actually didn't have to think about the word 'vampire' since most of the books here were about vampires, but there were so many; thick and thin, large and small, I didn't know which book to start with. I did the approach I least expected to do; close my eyes and start with whatever book my hand reached out and touched. I opened my eyes once m fingers rubbed against a thick covered book, and saw that it was about the origins of Strigoi.

I was hoping I would learn about good vampires first, but knowledge about our enemies would be needed later on anyway, so it would be a good start now to read about them. I was about to look around for a place to sit comfortably to read until I heard a "_pssst" _sound go through my ears from not too far away. Turning, I saw one of the two guys that teased me today about being a little human girl. I blinked as Rodney met my gaze and gestured with his finger to come sit with him. He was sitting on a big red couch and was all alone with his cell phone in his hand. He was out of his gym uniform and now in a black band t-shirt that fitted around his muscles perfectly and regular dark denim jeans. I smirked politely and walked towards the couch, book still in my hand, and his R chain seemed to glisten as I glanced at it briefly. I reached where he was sitting and sat next to him, nearly sinking into the fabric. I could see that this reading corner of the library was actually well hidden by the tall columns of book shelves. Rodney took a strand of my hair and twirled it around his finger.

"Shouldn't you be in class, Gianina?" He asked as if he were some kind of dean. Gianina was actually my full name, but I hated it dearly and preferred to be called Gia. Unfortunately, my Calculus teacher introduced me to class by my full name, so everyone there knew it now. I miserably attempted to hide my laugh at his question and pushed some of my hair back.

"Shouldn't you be?"

"Nah. I don't feel like listening to Stan's big mouth today."

My eyebrows rose. "You have his class this period?"

Rodney nodded. "Wasn't it his class where your friend got all assertive for Rose Hathaway?"

I glanced briefly at my book, seeming to forget that word was getting around about Natasha's situation with Stan Alto. "Yes. He was embarrassing her; so naturally, she stood up for herself and her friend. I would have."

Rodney scoffed a bit at my response. "Well you do have a lot of confidence."

I rolled my eyes. "I don't let people push me around. We were being made fun of today by this little girl named Mia, and I was so close to beating her down."

He raised an eyebrow and gave me a look that told me he was interested in this conversation. "Did you?"

"No. I got stopped just in time because Rose pulled her away and gave her an ultimatum. I rarely give out warnings though."

"I can tell you're not one to take things lightly." He replied. His arms stretched across the back of the couch and he put on leg over the other. His head was facing front, but his eyes were slanted over at me. "I did watch you fight against Giovanni during guardian combat class. For a girl –let alone a human- you can fight pretty well."

I exhaled heavily and looked up at the ceiling. "Here we go again, about me being a little _human _girl."

He smirked. "We barely have any female novices and Dhampir are stronger than a human. I'm not saying your bad though."

"You make it sound like it is." I teased. At this point, I had forgotten that the book was still in my hands, but I saw him glance at it for a second and then back at me.

"Taking our word about Strigoi, huh?"

"Well, if I'm going to run into one someday, I might as well know all about them."

He scoffed a bit before falling silent. He lightly bit the side of his bottom lip as if decided whether to say something secret or not. Apparently, he did. "Wade's younger brother got killed by one."

Whoa, I wasn't expecting to hear that at the moment, but since we were talking about bloodthirsty killers, I supposed it fit into the conversation. My blank face had then frowned at the thought of a loved one being massacred by a dangerous vampire. "Is that why Wade seemed so tense when we were he mentioned Strigoi at the gym?" So Wade did seem naturally serious, but there was something about him that moment that made him appear uncomfortable to bring up the subject. Rodney nodded at my question.

"Yeah. He used to be happy all the time and took everything as a joke when his little brother was with him. But one night, he snuck out, and Wade didn't know about it. He didn't know he was dead either until the next morning he saw his body in their backyard. There were big bite marks on his neck and there was dried up blood everywhere. That's when Wade knew a Strigoi had attacked his younger brother, and that's how he became all serious. Ever since his brother died, he wasn't one to make laugh easily. It's like his sense of humor's been sucked right out of him."

It was a sad story. It would suck to have all the joy in your life suddenly vanquished because someone you deeply cared about died. I probably would have felt the same way if the same thing happened to my family and friends, like Natasha. I may have only known her for a month so far, but we have so much in common, I don't want to lose her. I must have gone silent after that, because Rodney had asked me a ridiculous question.

"You're not going to cry, are you?"

I gaped at him and then playfully punched his arm. "Of course not!"

"Good," He said, smirking as well. "I'm not good with criers."

"I can't remember the last time I cried actually." I replied. He chuckled a bit then.

"You're good a fighting, good at bragging, good at learning; you're just like her," He said. It was similar to what Mia had said to me earlier at lunch. "And all of this when you're a human too."

"I've been told twice today that I'm like…_her_, whoever her is," I replied. "Just because I'm human doesn't mean that I'm not good at things."

He turned his head towards me then, and as he turned I could smell the slight whiff of cologne on him. The scent was actually quite inviting, and it seemed to fit his look, making him look all the more attractive. I had thought at first that Rodney was just another one of those guys that was good looking but was more of a friend, but I had now realized that being with Rodney gave me the same tingly feeling I had gotten when Jesse spoke to me. I suddenly felt like I was one of the lucky ones to speak with him.

"Really," He asked skeptically. "Then what else are you good at?"

The tone in his voice almost made the question seem sensual. Guys did flirt with me a lot, so I shouldn't have been surprised by that. I had remembered how he seemed to have never asked any questions to me about myself, and that he seemed to learn about me just by looking at me. That had given me an answer that wouldn't reveal anything about me but at the same time be an advantage to his abilities.

"That's for me to know and for you to find out."

He had smirked. "That's what I expected you to say."

Our conversation got interrupted when a Moroi guy suddenly walked in front of us. It wasn't Wade, but he must have been a friend of Rodney's. His hair was a light brown and also down to his shoulders, but it was quite straight. His eyes were blue and his lips were a little pink, not that he was wearing makeup but they did seem to stick out a bit. Like every other Moroi, he was very tall and scrawny, and wore a plain black hoodie and denim jeans. He glanced at me for a second, and then back at Rodney.

"See you've made a friend." He said to the Dhampir. His voice was also quite deep. Rodney nodded at grinned.

"Nicolai, this is Gia," He said. "Gia, this is Nicolai; Nick for short."

"Good, because I'm just about getting tired of all of these fancy long names people have at this school." I replied. Nick laughed in response and then went blank faced when he looked back at Rodney.

"Rod, my friend just texted me to let you know that Stan knows you're cutting and will mark your absence unexcused if you don't show up for class."

Like I did earlier, Rodney exhaled aggravatingly. "I hate that goddamn instructor." He had began to gather his things, but then paused for a moment and glanced at to his right, and then to me. "Gia, could you come outside with us for a moment?"

I blinked at first, but then cooperated. "Sure."

I decided to leave my stuff on the couch since I would be back in later on anyway. Stepping outside in the dark only a few feet away from the door, the three of us had stopped next to a shrub. Both guys immediately looked at me.

"Say, my friend is having a little party in his dorm a little bit after curfew. We're invited a lot of people there, and I think you'd fit well into it."

I raised both my eyebrows and grinned. "Ooo, a little get-together, huh?"

"Sort of," Nicolai –er, Nick replied. "Just that we've been working our asses off for so long this semester, we need some time off for ourselves to hang out. This is how we're doing that tonight."

Since this school had a nocturnal schedule, I figured that curfew would be in the morning, probably around six or seven a.m. I might as well have some fun while I'm in this school. Rodney spoke again. "So, you want to hang with us then?"

Since I felt there were other things to do besides sleep, I decided to check the place out later on. "Sure. I'll check it out."

"Nice," Rodney replied. He put on that cool smirk he always seemed to have on. "Then we'll see you at 8 in the morning. Room 470 in the boy's dorm corridors."

"See you then." I replied. They were about to walk away, until Rodney must have recalled something.

"Oh, invite your friend if you want to. And uh, try not to get caught sneaking out."

I grinned in reply. Sneaking out was my specialty. "Don't worry. I won't."

With that answered, the two boys walked away, and I felt the end of my lips curl the farther they walked away. I was glad that I could easily meet new people here that I could relate to in numerous ways. Even if I was just was a simpleton human girl, all of my capabilities were to the max. I turned around and nearly ran back in the library, ecstatic and expecting big things to come this school year.


End file.
